Editing Bilderberg Meeting (section)

== Criticism==

There have been long standing concerns about [[lobbying]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.sky.com/story/1100183/bilderberg-conference-watford-too-secret |title=Bilderberg Conference Watford 'Too Secret' |publisher=[[Sky News]] |date=6 June 2013 |access-date=11 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/06/my-brush-bilderberg |title=My brush with Bilderberg |last=Jones |first=Nelson |work=[[New Statesman]] |date=10 June 2013 |access-date=11 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615031248/http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/06/my-brush-bilderberg |archive-date=15 June 2013 }}</ref> since senior policymakers meet with corporate lobbyists, and in the case of the 2015 meeting even with senior figures at [[Transparency International]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Charlie Skelton |date=2015-06-14 |title=Bilderberg 2015: TTIP and a travesty of transparency |language=en |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/14/bilderberg-2015-a-travesty-of-transparency |access-date=2022-11-15}}</ref>

Partly because of its working methods to ensure strict privacy and secrecy,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thelocal.ch/20190528/secretive-bilderberg-meeting-to-be-held-in-switzerland-from-may-30th-reports|title=Confirmed: Secretive Bilderberg Meeting to be held in Switzerland from May 30th|date=2019-05-28|website=www.thelocal.ch|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-05-29}}</ref> the Bilderberg Group has been criticised for its lack of transparency and accountability.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/bilderberg-davidcameron |title=Bilderberg 2013: The sun sets on Watford |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=11 June 2013 |access-date=11 June 2013 |location=London |first1=Michael |last1=Meacher |first2=Charlie |last2=Skelton}}</ref> 
Ian Richardson sees Bilderberg as the transnational [[power elite]], "an integral, and to some extent critical, part of the existing system of [[global governance]]", that is "not acting in the interests of the whole". Many of these critics have emphasized that they do not accept or do not believe that there is enough evidence to support the diversity of conspiracy theories that have arisen in regard to the group and that they disapprove of what they regard as their unpleasant associations and connotations.<ref name=ian>{{cite news|last=Richardson|first=Ian|title=Chantilly Laced: Holding Bilderberg and the Transnational Policy Elite to Account|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-richardson/chantilly-laced-holding-b_b_1558425.html|access-date=21 September 2015|work=Huffington Post|date=31 May 2012}}</ref> For example, an article by the English commentator Charlie Skelton in ''[[The Guardian]]'' in June 2017 criticized the world view expressed in an agenda published by the Bilderberg group without engaging in speculation about conspiratorial activities.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/02/bilderberg-secretive-conference-eric-schmidt|title=Bilderberg: the world's most secretive conference is as out of touch as ever|last=Skelton|first=Charlie|date=2 June 2017|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=18 April 2018}}</ref>