Corporate Europe Observatory

We are so much better at fighting corporate capture that we are at making videos! Still, we hope you have enjoyed this series of explainers.

Should we continue to do it? If so, what topics should we talk about next? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Busy day in Brussels.
Proud to be part of the protest this morning outside the European Commission together with citizens affected by PFAS from across Europe and the European Environmental Bureau.
Together we demand a ban on PFAS now!

Even though President VDL is happy to meet with CEFIC & chemicals industry in Antwerp to tell them how she is delivering on their agenda, it seems like she has no time to meet people living day-to-day with impacts of PFAS pollution.

Corporate lobbyists in Brussels have a playbook.

4 tactics they use to shape EU laws without us noticing:
1️⃣ Repeat until it sounds like consensus
2️⃣ Throw money at it
3️⃣ Blur the lines between regulator and regulated
4️⃣ Delay, distract, greenwash

The more we know it, the less we fall for it!

🎂 For the 1st birthday of the Clean Industrial Deal (CID) 🎂

CEO exposes how dirty industry lobbyists have outgunned civil society in gaining access to the European Commission and influencing this #DirtyIndustrialDeal.

Thread with key findings 🧵

https://www.corporateeurope.org/en/2026/02/clean-industrial-deal-year-dirty-lobbying

🗓️ Tomorrow is the 1-year anniversary of the EU’s #CleanIndustrialDeal. We looked into the lobbying:

🤝 750+ meetings - 3/working day
👔 90% = business interests
🔎 5.5% = NGOs
👷 1% = trade unions

Big polluters have engineered a #DirtyIndustrialDeal

📖 Read more: https://www.corporateeurope.org/en/2026/02/clean-industrial-deal-year-dirty-lobbying

The EU just signed its “Clean Trade and Investment Partnership” w/ South Africa. Clean transition — or green colonialism?

Europe wants green hydrogen. South Africa bears the water, land & livelihood costs.
130+ groups are pushing back.

Watch & sign the petition 👇
https://www.corporateeurope.org/en/gh2-petition-new

Is the EU heading for a social dumping disaster?

The proposed '28th Regime' would let companies choose EU-level rules over national labour and tax laws. Trade unions warn it could trigger a race to the bottom for workers’ rights.

Innovation — or deregulation?
Watch our new explainer video and find out👇

Big Tech spent €151 million lobbying the EU last year.

That’s 890 lobbyists — more than elected MEPs.

Now key digital rights like GDPR and the AI Act are being quietly rolled back.

We looked at who’s really influencing EU tech rules — and what’s happening behind closed doors. 👇

Check out new ‘The Pollution Playbook: how industry blocks regulation of toxic chemicals’ briefing by @ciel.org and @corporateeurope@mstdn.social on the deceptive tactics used by chemicals industry to keep producing & using their toxic products.

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://www.corporateeurope.org/en/2026/02/pollution-playbook