20260305 Ex-Meta-Lobbyistin als EU-Digitalexpertin?

Putting US tech companies in their place

In its latest newsletter, LobbyControl.de once again draws our attention to how the Big 5 (also known as GAFAM) continue to gain influence in the EU. Instead, they should finally be forced to comply with EU laws and pay their fines. LobbyControl.de writes:

... a textbook example of lobbying: Facebook's former chief lobbyist, Aura Salla, is moving to the EU Parliament, where she will take up a key position in the committee that is currently negotiating new data protection and digital laws. What follows? She repeats one of the core demands of the tech companies: less data protection. What sounds like a bad joke is reality. Such changes of sides with clear conflicts of interest must be stopped.

How independent can someone be who has represented the interests of a corporation for years and then helps shape the rules for that very same corporation? Members of the European Parliament should serve the common good — not the profit interests of their former employers. To strengthen trust in EU institutions, we must avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest. We must act now.

LobbyControl.de proposes the following initial steps:

Step 1: Together with other organizations, we wrote an open letter to the relevant members of the committee concerned. In it, we demand that Aura Salla's appointment be revoked.

Step 2: We are campaigning for clear rules governing transitions between politics and business. This is a tough task, but we are taking it on. No corporation or lobby group should be allowed to gain privileged influence over politics through such transitions. These rules must be decided in transparent and independent negotiations – without influence from these very same tech companies.

LobbyControl.de also promises: "We will be closely monitoring the negotiations in the coming weeks and will publicly expose the critical influence of Google, Meta, Apple, and others."