Over the course of four months, while Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were debating the “Omnibus law,” 22,158 lobbyists entered the European Parliament. An analysis of exclusive data detailing their presence during this politically charged period clearly highlights the weight of economic and financial interests, many of them from the United States. This worrying finding should lead European political authorities to exercise the utmost vigilance toward representatives of the most polluting industries and their allies.
In 2025, the European Parliament adopted measures that weakened protections for human rights and the environment. Reclaim Finance sought to understand who may have influenced this deregulatory push targeting the very laws designed to protect Europeans and their future.
After months of exchanges with the European Parliament’s administrative services, Reclaim Finance obtained two documents showing the entries and exits of lobbyists between the start of the parliamentary term, on September 1, 2025, and December 18, 2025 (just before the winter break). During this period, 22,158 lobbyists entered the Parliament, with private-sector representatives accounting for at least twice as many entries as those from NGOs, platforms, or other non-profit networks.
As the data show, unlike NGOs, companies engage in both direct lobbying (i.e., lobbyists employed by the company itself) and indirect lobbying through trade associations and consultancies. ExxonMobil, for instance, reported spending between €4 million and €4.5 million on lobbying in 2025, a sum no NGO could hope to match.
The central role played by fossil fuel lobbies, especially American groups and their allies, helps explain certain positions in the Omnibus law, such as the scrapping of climate transition plans. The analysis of the lobbyists’ presence dates reveals eight days when more lobbyists than MEPs were inside the Parliament. Each time, their presence coincided with key moments of decision-making.
This new analysis goes beyond the information published annually in the EU Transparency Register. It should serve as a wake-up call for European decision-makers to exercise the greatest caution in their interactions with lobbyists who represent private interests fundamentally at odds with those of EU citizens.
