“…In a new report titled “This is what corporate capture looks like”, Corporate Europe Observatory shows how this so-called ‘simplification agenda’, is a cooperative endeavour between European Commissioners and lobby groups.
While deregulation campaigns are nothing new to Brussels politics, this one stands out with its scope and methodology: strong obligations are imposed on all EU Commissioners to deliver on deregulation, and it is set to last for years. Corporate lobbyists and other business representatives are invited in to take a major role.
In the report we show how a high level of ‘corporate capture” can be seen in the many meetings Commissioners have had with business representatives, and in the two new types of dialogue set up to move the deregulation strategy forward, the so-called Implementation Dialogues and the Reality Checks, both of which are dominated by business representatives.
The result is an avalanche of proposals for deregulation, tabled by the European Commission in the form of so-called Omnibuses, ten of which were presented in 2025. And a careful look at them, shows how the main proposals can be traced back to demands from particular companies or lobby groups.
In sum, this ‘simplification agenda’ – this deregulation campaign – risks paving the way for an even stronger role for corporate lobby groups in the European Union in the future…”