It includes 33 national organizations and thousands of local groups. The Friends of the Earth Europe office in Brussels fulfills a number of functions. It represents the network's member groups towards the European institutions aiming to influence EU-policymaking; raises public awareness of environmental issues; runs capacity building projects for its membership, and is a secretariat for its 33 national members. Friends of the Earth Europe is "working to create the much-needed, fair and urgent transition to a fossil fuel free Europe.
The organization calls for radical improvements in energy efficiency, an accelerated phase-out of fossil fuels, a dramatic shift towards community-owned renewable energies, and reduced overall resource consumption and lifestyle changes. This often means targeting extractive industries , especially those who are involved in fracking and tar sands extraction. The organization has been a key participant in the European movement against GMOs which has been successful in stopping the planting of GM crops across most of Europe.
The organization advocates for more environmentally friendly, equitable and sustainable farming. This includes campaigning to reform the European Common Agricultural Policy CAP in ways that can mitigate climate change emissions [ 8 ] especially through reducing reliance on soy imports for livestock [ 9 ] , protect biodiversity, and stop the collapse of family farming in Europe's agriculture sector. One of FoEE's campaigns aims to protect nature and biodiversity by supporting local groups in their preservation initiatives.
Friends of the Earth Europe's economic justice program is occupied with the influence of companies over EU decision-making and the economic, social and environmental consequences of corporate practices. It works to expose cases of corporate capture of EU regulation and examples of the influence of corporate interests over EU policy process which often results in a lack of regulation or weak regulation.
The program looks into the issue of European companies which have subsidiaries outside of Europe. It campaigns for guarantees that companies abide by the same safety and social standards for their workers and facilities outside of Europe as in Europe; and that European companies are held accountable for their practices outside of Europe, in particular in cases of abuses.
