Atlas – Koch Network in France EU European Union – Freedom and Fossil Fuels?

The French are waking up to US and Anglo ‘fossil fuel’,  faux ‘free market’ and ‘freedom & liberty’ anti-EU Atlas Koch Network via analysis from The Multinationals Observatory Investigative Media and Corporate Watchdog France in ‘The Koch-funded Atlas Network is also targeting Europe’ 30 May 2024.

Gives a good overview of Atlas in Europe and globally including events and NGOs i.e. in France and EU, the European Liberty Forum, Epicenter (European Policy Information Center), ECIPE (European Centre for International Political Economy), Consumer Choice Center and Free Trade Europa.

Summary of Atlas aims: ‘ it promotes a branch of ultra free market policies that inevitably involve tax cuts for the rich, slashing public spending, massive deregulation, and opposition to climate justice, backed by well-resourced but mostly hidden funders.’

However, they miss an important aspect i.e. implicit social – Darwinism of the Atlas ‘segregation economics’ and how in the US Atlas – Koch Network shares wealthy donors with the nativist and anti-immigrant Tanton Network (see graphic in Binkowski in ‘Eugenics, Border Wars and Population Control: Tanton Network’ (22 August 2022), with deep French influence too.

This includes Renaud Camus’ ‘The Great Replacement’ that was apparently inspired by Jean Raspail’s ‘Camp of the Saints’ which in turn inspires Steve Bannon et al., was published by Tanton’s TSCP The Social Contract Press, as was an interview of Raspail by an Australian academic and ‘demographer’.

‘The Koch-funded Atlas Network is also targeting Europe

The influence of the Atlas Network – a web of libertarian and ultraconservative think tanks funded by billionaires such as the Kochs – has been well documented in the US, the UK, and more recently Argentina following the election of Javier Milei. Its growing presence in the EU has been less examined. But the next EU elections could deliver a political landscape even more favourable to their ideas. This article takes a look at some of the Atlas Network’s partners in Brussels and their activities.

Published on 30 May 2024

The European Liberty Forum, held in Madrid on 23 and 24 May [1], is an event organised by the Atlas Network – a global association of libertarian, free-market, and ultra-conservative think tanks and organisations – which brings together most of its European partners, just a few days before the EU elections. It comes on the heels of another gathering of the international far right, also in Madrid, organised by the Spanish party Vox, and attended by Marine Le Pen, the Italian and Hungarian Prime Ministers Georgia Meloni and Viktor Orban, Argentine President Javier Milei and close allies of Donald Trump such as Roger Severino of the Heritage Foundation [2]. The proximity between both events is telling. The Heritage Foundation is a key member of the Atlas Network, and Milei’s radical austerity and deregulatory political platform is heavily influenced by Atlas Network think tanks. Both events are a symbol of a far right on the rise in Europe, electorally but also – and perhaps just as importantly – from the perspective of the ‘battle of ideas’.

Based in Arlington, Virginia, the Atlas Network is a major network of think tanks and other organisations working around the world to “change the climate of ideas”. Founded in 1981 by British battery farm entrepreneur Antony Fisher, the Atlas Network aims to blanket the world with libertarian think tanks, modelled on his original Institute of Economic Affairs (IAE) in the UK which contributed to Margaret Thatcher’s victory. According to its 2023 annual report, it has 589 partners in 103 countries and a budget of 28 million US dollars [3]. Its members in the United States include influential think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Heartland Institute. Behind the Atlas Network are right wing billionaires and foundations such as the Koch’s and the Templeton Foundation, as well as major corporations in sectors such as oil, tobacco and pharmaceuticals. The Atlas Network is a reflection of a wider alliance, in the US, between economic libertarians – with their anti-climate, anti-regulation and anti-social justice agenda – and ultraconservatives which focus on issues such as abortion, migrants and minority rights.

Copyright The Multinationals Observatory Investigative Media and Corporate Watchdog France 2024

Copyright The Multinationals Observatory Investigative Media and Corporate Watchdog France 2024

To “change the climate of ideas”, the Atlas Network and its partners use a range of influence strategies that sometimes involve manipulation, such as offering falsely neutral expertise or ‘astroturfing’. With these methods, the Atlas Network’s partners have scored important political victories all over the world: spreading climate denialism, influencing referendum outcomes (the Voice in Australia, the referendum on the Chilean constitution, Brexit, etc.) and electing Javier Milei in Argentina. British journalist Georges Monbiot recently asked in The Guardian: “What links Rishi Sunak, Javier Milei and Donald Trump?” Answer: the Atlas Network.

Copyright The Multinationals Observatory Investigative Media and Corporate Watchdog France 2024

Just as it has in Argentina, in France, and around the world (read our recent investigation in French), the Atlas Network supports, nurtures and promotes its partners throughout Europe. Wherever its influence is felt it promotes a ranch of ultra free market policies that inevitably involve tax cuts for the rich, slashing public spending, massive deregulation, and opposition to climate justice, backed by well-resourced but mostly hidden funders. The politics it is promoting in Europe are no exception, and reflect a similar alliance between extreme neoliberal policies and radical conservative causes, as seen in the US.

The ‘Liberty Forum’ is co-organised by one of Atlas Network’s partners in Spain, the Foundation for the Advancement of Freedom (Fundalib). In 2023, Fundalib won an international award from the Atlas Network for its work in favour of tax cuts for freelancers and businesses. Fundalib also works on other issues, such as climate change; in 2019 it formed an alliance with another Spanish think tank, the Juan de Mariana Institute (JMI), also a partner of the Atlas Network, which was recently described as the epicentre of climate obstructionism in southern Europe [4]. Fundalib is cultivating relationships in another camp of European politics: that of the liberals (ALDE – Renew Europe), which include the French Macronists. In April 2024, Fundalib’s President Roxana Nicula was in Brussels to be formally welcomed as a member by the European Liberal Forum [5], the political foundation of the ALDE Party (not to be confused with Atlas’ Europe Liberty Forum previously mentioned).

The European Liberal Forum is also partnering with the Free Market Road Show, alongside dozens of neoliberal and libertarian organisations, many of which are members of the Atlas Network [6]. Launched in Brussels on 5 March, the 2024 edition of this libertarian grand tour featured events in a number of major European cities with the objective of disseminating libertarian ideas and networking with national and international allies. The Paris session was held on 13 March at the headquarters of ALEPS (Association pour la liberté économique et le progrès social, a historical pillar of the Atlas Network in France), and was organised by IREF (Institut de recherches économiques et fiscales). The road show culminated in London on 21 May, with an event organised by the Legatum Institute, which was a key player in the Brexit campaign [7].

It is no coincidence that libertarian networks are so active on the old continent in the run-up to crucial EU elections at the beginning of June. While the European Union has always been grounded in free trade principles, it has also been the source of important regulations in many areas, which libertarians have always reviled. This is why most of the British members of the Atlas Network actively encouraged their country’s exit from the EU [8]. At the same time – and more discreetly – other of Atlas Network’s partners have worked within the Brussels bubble and engaged with EU institutions to push their agenda, such as the signing of numerous free trade agreements (see below). With the rise of the far right across Europe and the election of leaders sympathetic to their ideas in several countries, such as Italy and the Netherlands recently, they see an opportunity to push Europe towards even more deregulatory and less protective policies.

In fact, the Atlas Network’s influence in Europe is not confined to member states’ capitals, but also extends to Brussels, where most of the EU institutions are based. One of its most influential members in Europe is Epicenter (European Policy Information Center) [9]. It recently published a report on the Single Market which takes aim at the platform workers directive and the EU regulation of Big Tech and AI. Epicenter publishes a ranking of so-called “nanny states” aimed at denouncing countries that ‘restrict’ the individual freedom of their citizens for example by regulating alcohol and tobacco. These rankings and studies – all geared towards defending the least possible interference with the corporate agenda – are conceived and readily circulated via media sound bites. The ranking is promoted at national level by Atlas Network’s local partners, such as the Institut Molinari in France. As a result, Epicenter boasts that in 2023 it reached 250 million European citizens and has been mentioned more than 300 times in the media.

The Atlas Network has recently added yet another partner in Brussels: the European chapter of the US Tax Foundation, which promotes “investor-friendly” taxation and opposes fiscal justice reforms. Despite being relatively new at EU level, this organisation is already very well connected politically. The manager of the European tax administration attended its launch event in Brussels on 23 February 2024, and even welcomed the arrival of this new player in the Brussels bubble [10].

Below (excerpts), we present in more detail three other partners of the Atlas Network active in EU policies, which illustrate the different themes and modes of action promoted by the network.

ECIPE: highly biassed expertise on free trade

ECIPE (European Centre for International Political Economy) is a think tank which claims to stand for liberal ideas in the classical sense of the term. It specialises in trade and is a strong advocate of free trade agreements. It is an active promoter of deals such as the EU and Mercosur trade deal, which has recently been much criticised by European farmers. 

Consumer Choice Center: a front group for the ultra-rich and agribusiness

The Washington-based Consumer Choice Center (CCC) claims to be a global movement of grassroots organisations. Yet it recently sponsored an event in Davos [15]: its EU representative Bill Wirtz attended this year’s annual gathering of the world’s richest, where he was able to take a selfie with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. 

Free Trade Europa: labour rights as a “violation of freedoms”?

Although verbal violence is not uncommon on X (formerly Twitter), it is unusual to see a lobbyist publicly rejoicing at the failure of an EU Council Presidency initiative. And even less praising other Member States for giving the Spanish government a ’bloody nose’ when it failed to find a consensus on a law giving employment rights to platform workers [29]. Yet that is exactly what Free Trade Europa did, amply demonstrating the extent to which, at the end of December 2023, on the issue of the legal status of platform workers, two diametrically opposed visions of the world were clashing…. Click through to full article’

This article was prepared as part of a larger report about the Atlas Network and its influence in France. See: [Le réseau Atlas, la France et l’extrême-droitisation des esprits->rubrique153], May 2024 Photo: Teemu Mäntynen cc by-sa

For more related articles on Ageing Democracy, Climate Change, Demography, EU European Union, Eugenics, Immigration, Koch Network, Media, Populist Politics, Radical Right Libertarians, Tanton Network and White Nationalism click through:

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