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Deregulation watch banner: competitiveness, simplification, overregulation, red tape, regulatory burdens

Recent publications

Lobby league 2026 titlex
Climate

The EU corporate lobby league 2026

Big business spends more on lobbying than ever
11.06.2026
Corporate spending on lobbying the EU keeps on rising, according to new analysis by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl. Big Tech spending tops them all.
The return of a threat to workers rights. Trade union demonstration against the Bolkestein Directive, March 2005.
Lobbying the EU

EU Inc: A corporate master plan to attack our rights

09.06.2026
A primer on the eight things you need to know about “EU Inc.” and the 28th Regime, how it will lead to attacks on workers rights, and help companies evade taxation.
Banner that says "deregulation watch" and has photos of Ursula von der Leyen, Elon Musk and Mario Draghi and the words competitiveness, simplification, overregulation, red tape, regulatory burdens
Lobbying the EU

Deregulation Watch

Helping civil society monitor the deregulation agenda
08.06.2026
Check out our new posts on Deregulation Watch which helps civil society monitor new developments in the deregulation agenda, assess what’s at stake, and organise in defence of strong social, environmental, and human rights protections.
regenerative AG cartoon
Food & agriculture

A Degenerative Lobby

‘Regenerative Agriculture’: the new buzzword for Agrobusiness
01.06.2026
Pesticide corporations like Bayer and Syngenta are among a very broad range of actors from the global agribusiness and food sector who are behind the push for what they call “regenerative agriculture” in Europe and elsewhere.
Image (website_and_horiz.png): "Podcast cover graphic for EU Watchdog Radio, Episode 8, titled '182 out of 184 – This is what corporate capture looks like.' On the left, a torn paper collage features a close-up halftone eye with teal lightning bolt and asterisk accents. On the right, a black-and-white pencil illustration shows a giant hand gripping the top of a skyscraper from above, viewed from street level against a cloudy sky. The background is dark textured black.
Lobbying the EU

182 out of 184

This is what corporate capture looks like
27.05.2026
We need to talk about what deregulation actually means in Brussels right now. It means one commissioner holding 184 meetings with external actors, 182 of them with business groups. Check out our new podcast episode with Kenneth Haar and Rachel Tansey.
Essential PFAS sales

Polluters have knives out again for the forever chemicals ban

21.05.2026
While the European Chemicals Agency is consulting on the proposed PFAS ban, the plastics industry is once again mobilising to criticise alternatives to their products.
Yellow background with report title written and a toxic symbol of dead fish and a tree with the 12 EU stars around it
Climate

Permission to Pollute

EU rips up permit rules and funds dirty infrastructure
11.05.2026
New report on how the European Commission is weakening permitting rules to fast-track polluting projects, such as mines, CO2 pipelines and data centres.
seeds patented
Food & agriculture

Take action: Say no to deregulation GMO food

Protect food and farming from corporate control
23.04.2026
The European Union is planning a major hand-out to big corporations like Bayer and BASF, that aim to control the food chain even further. What do they intend to do? Scrapping safety and transparency rules for risky new GMOs, and let corporations profit from patented GM crops.
BASF EU2024BE event
Food & agriculture

CORRECTIV: "The pact with the chemical industry"

20.04.2026
Tens of thousands of unknown, sometimes toxic, chemicals are floating in the Rhine. Why is industry allowed to discharge them unhindered? A top manager of a major corporation reveals how industry controls politicians. Translation of an article by CORRECTIV.
ghost writer
Lobbying the EU

Copy, paste, govern

Microsoft ghostwrote EU policy that keeps data centres' energy use secret
15.04.2026
The EU Commission’s policy on data centres keeps information on individual centres' energy and water use under wraps. Research now reveals the Commission copied and pasted an amendment suggested by Microsoft and Digital Europe. The aim? In the face of growing resistance, to prevent NGOs from obtaining information on data centres.
seeds patented
Food & agriculture

Biotech lobby groups are set to trap farmers and breeders in patent minefield

Deregulation of new GM crops will increase seed market concentration, undermine resilience of the food system
12.04.2026
A new EU law that would scrap any safety or labeling rules for a class of new GM crops (called NGTs), is in its final stages. As all GM crops are covered by patents, this will negatively impact the way our food is produced – meaning more market power in the hands of just a handful of corporations, less choice in seeds for farmers, and more bureaucratic hurdles for smaller plant breeders. Industry tries to brush aside widespread concerns about patents, using flawed arguments. MEPs now have a final opportunity to curb patents on food and other crops.
cover report
Lobbying the EU

This is what corporate capture looks like!

Report: How corporations run the EU deregulation agenda
01.04.2026
Where do the EU deregulation laws come from? From extensive talks between the European Commission and business groups, often in opaque new types of dialogue, according to the report “This is what corporate capture looks like!”
All articles

Visit our EU lobby data website

Lobbyfacts.eu Exposing lobbying in the European institutions - screenshot of a file
Visit our EU lobby data website

EU Watchdog Radio

Discover all podcast episodes here
Image (website_and_horiz.png): "Podcast cover graphic for EU Watchdog Radio, Episode 8, titled '182 out of 184 – This is what corporate capture looks like.' On the left, a torn paper collage features a close-up halftone eye with teal lightning bolt and asterisk accents. On the right, a black-and-white pencil illustration shows a giant hand gripping the top of a skyscraper from above, viewed from street level against a cloudy sky. The background is dark textured black.
This is what corporate capture looks like: 182 out of 184
Listen now

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Flagship reports

Lobby league 2026 cover

The EU corporate lobby league 2026

11.06.2026

Corporate spending on lobbying the EU keeps on rising, according to new analysis by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl. Big Tech spending tops them all.

Yellow background with report title written and a toxic symbol of dead fish and a tree with the 12 EU stars around it

Permission to Pollute

11.05.2026

New report on how the European Commission is weakening permitting rules to fast-track polluting projects, such as mines, CO2 pipelines and data centres.

Frontpage for the report This is what corporate capture looks like!

This is what corporate capture looks like!

01.04.2026

Where do the EU deregulation laws come from? From extensive talks between the European Commission and business groups, often in opaque new types of dialogue, according to the report “This is what corporate capture looks like!”

 

Chemical reaction thumbnail

Chemical reaction

14.01.2025

The proposal to restrict PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ is at serious risk of being hijacked by corporate lobbying, says a new CEO report. Find out more, including about the Forever Lobbying Project, a ground-breaking journalistic investigation. 

Front cover of new report from CEO, The Scramble For Hydrogen In South Africa: how frontline communities are impacted by the EU's green extractivism. There is a picture of local Nama community leader Andries Joseph, pointing over a fenced-off arid area

The scramble for hydrogen in South Africa

05.12.2024

Europe’s scramble for green hydrogen in South Africa will have a devastating impact on local communities, the very same ones whose voices are being ignored by EU policy makers.

Cold homes, hot profits cover image

Cold homes, hot profits

24.10.2023

From Rome to Prague, Brussels to London, politicians are welcoming fossil fuel companies as advisers instead of arsonists, failing to recognise their vested interests and their role in creating, prolonging, and profiting from the energy crisis. 

All reports
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Charitable status

Corporate Europe Observatory is recognised by the Dutch tax office as a charitable institution (ANBI) under fiscal number 806634558. Legal and fiscal information can be found here.

Who funds us

Our funding policy rejects funding from EU institutions and corporations in order to maintain the independence of our research. See which grant-making foundations are supporting us.

Lobby transparency

Corporate Europe Observatory is registered in the EU lobby transparency register under identification number 5353162366-85.

 

 

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