Published February 27, 2026
By Silvia Pastorelli, CIEL EU Petrochemicals Campaigner.
Until a few years ago in Brussels, progress toward halting climate chaos and environmental degradation felt possible, even if painfully slow. Today, that momentum hasn’t just stalled — it’s in reverse. We are witnessing a steady rollback of European Union (EU) environmental and social rules, some barely dry on the page, through packages of laws — “omnibus proposals” — to be amended under the guise of “simplification.”
The tide started to turn in February 2024 with the Antwerp Declaration. This signal of intent, coordinated by Cefic (an EU chemicals lobby group consisting of major petrochemical and chemical companies) and backed by seventy-three business representatives, distilled industry demands into a “wishlist” focused on prioritizing industry needs, regaining lost competitiveness, and, in particular, simplifying EU laws. Today, the number of its supporters has ballooned to 1,300.
The proof of the Declaration’s success was how quickly its demands were embraced by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Rise of Corporate Influence
Since backing the Antwerp Declaration, EU policymaking has become increasingly close to the industry, mirroring its narrative and fulfilling its regulatory wishes. Statements of European Commissioners and representatives from groups such as Cefic, Business Europe, and Plastic Europe regularly echo each other, underscoring the industry’s influence over European politics.
European Commission President Von der Leyen first made clear her intention to prioritize industry interests when she pledged to “make business easier and faster in Europe” and to deliver a Clean Industrial Deal within the first 100 days of her mandate. This reflected an explicit request of Business Europe (Brussels’ largest business association), which, during the European elections, called for a policy “reboot” and for a Clean Industrial Deal within the first 100 days.
As the Antwerp Declaration reached 1,000 signatures, petrochemical lobby groups such as Cefic and Plastics Europe intensified their push for a shift in EU politics, calling for a “holistic European approach for an Industrial Deal” and warning of “falling competitiveness.” Together, they each urged the EU to recognize that “the future of Europe is made with industry” while demanding a reduction in “red tape” and the shortening of “excessively long permitting procedures.”
The first concrete example of industry influence reshaping EU policymaking was the Competitiveness Compass: “This doctrine is simple and can be summed up in one keyword: competitiveness,” said EU Commissioner for Industry Stéphane Séjourné. Industry leaders immediately seized the momentum as Cefic’s Director General noted, “The calls of almost 1,300 industry leaders […] have not only been heard but are being actioned upon. Now that we are on the road to boosting competitiveness, let’s speed it up.”
And speed it up, the Commission did.
Dismantling EU Laws
On the first anniversary of the Antwerp Declaration, President Von der Leyen announced, “I am very grateful for these dialogues [with industry] because the results have shaped the priorities of my new Commission[. …] The Clean Industrial Deal[…] delivers on each and every one of the ten recommendations in the Antwerp Declaration.”
After that, the deregulation floodgates opened and omnibus proposals piled up, each aiming to relax or cut rules, effectively lowering environmental and social standards. Unashamedly, these proposals featured many of Business Europe’s sixty-eight suggestions to lighten the regulatory burden. This included amendments to the Industrial Emissions Directive and environmental impact assessment procedures (Environmental Omnibus) and the Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (Chemical Omnibus). Even the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive — two primary industry targets — were later included in the first Omnibus proposal and significantly watered down.
While terms such as “simplification” and “competitiveness” sound positive, they are being used to justify removing laws that ensure public participation, robust environmental impact assessments, and corporate transparency — and people and the environment are the ones that lose out. For months, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) sounded the alarm about the effects of this unprecedented wave of deregulation on people, workers, and the environment. The European Commission insisted the objective was not to deregulate, only to simplify. This was until Von der Leyen’s speech at the Competitiveness summit in Copenhagen, where she made clear, “We need simplification. We need deregulation.”
EU Commissioner for Economy and Productivity Valdis Dombrovskis echoed this, calling simplification the “key that can unlock Europe’s full competitive potential. […]” and describing the accumulation of rules as a problem itself.
At the end of 2025, the Commission announced that more than half of the 2026 program would focus on simplification. Commissioner Dombrovskis confirmed this trajectory: “The culture change that we have launched across the Commission — placing a greater focus on simplification and competitiveness — will also continue.”
The Future: For All, or Just a Few?
Fast forward to the second anniversary of the Antwerp Declaration, and we are witnessing one of the most successful examples of undue corporate influence on policymaking as the Commission plans to “simplify” its own lawmaking rules. Regular meetings between companies and the European Commission increased throughout 2025, and 2026 is set to be no different. Following what seems to be a now-annual tradition, the Commission President dined with Business Europe members and met industry representatives in Antwerp just before retreating to a Belgian castle with European leaders to discuss how to boost competitiveness.
These new changes threaten to exacerbate the democratic crisis, further silencing civil society during the legislative process and paring back environmental impact assessments, which are essential to ecosystem and human well-being, and to everyone who depends on them.
But things can still change; we can return to a genuine energy and industrial transition that centers human, social, and environmental rights. The European Commission still has the power to reverse this trend, defend vital environmental and climate rules, and strengthen measures for civil society participation while ending the privileged access currently enjoyed by big polluters.
Doing so requires vision and the courage to stand up to undue corporate influence and work in everyone’s interest, not just of few.