Big tech, banking, energy: who are the biggest spenders on EU lobbying?
Copyright AP Photo
By Paula Soler
Published on 24/02/2025
The world’s largest companies and trade associations from the big tech, banking, energy, and chemicals/agri sectors have significantly increased their EU lobbying budgets in recent years.
The 162 biggest corporations and trade associations collectively spent €343 million on lobbying EU legislators and officials over the past year, according to a new analysis.
Between February 2024 and February 2025, annual lobbying expenditures rose by 13%, and by nearly a third since 2020, according to a report from non-profit groups Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and LobbyControl.
However, these estimates remain conservative, as only entities spending over one million euros are required to disclose their lobbying budgets in the EU’s transparency register.
Among the highest-declaring corporates and associations are major big tech players like Meta and Microsoft, with lobbying budgets of €9 million and €7 million respectively, as well as the European Banking Federation, energy firm Shell, FuelsEurope, Bayer, Novartis, BusinessEurope, and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
With the Artificial Intelligence Act having entered into force last year, and the EU Commission planning to introduce the Clean Industrial Deal, an Action Plan on Affordable Energy, a Critical Medicines Act, and a Savings and Investments Union in 2025, all alongside an ongoing drive to slash red tape, the surge in lobbying budgets looks set to continue.
“We've seen a trend of increasing big tech lobbying for years, but the rise in spending by polluting industries such as energy and agri-chemicals over the past five years (44% and 31% respectively) clearly reflects the intense lobbying around the Green Deal,” CEO’s Vicky Cann told Euronews.
“With the Commission set to deliver a corporate-friendly Clean Industrial Deal later this week—alongside a massive deregulation push in the name of 'competitiveness'—it is deeply worrying that this industry lobbying appears to be paying off,” Cann added.
Both LobbyControl and CEO urge EU institutions to rethink lobbying rules and strengthen safeguards against regulatory capture, including the EU Transparency Register, which provides useful information for citizens to track lobbying activity.
“A legally binding lobby register is the only way to impose meaningful sanctions for posting inaccurate data and, in turn, improve the overall quality of the EU lobby register,” the advocacy groups said on Monday, as the platform is due to be reviewed by July 2025.
The analysis also examines the number of meetings between lobbyists and EU officials and the number of badges granting them access to the European Parliament.
The European Chemical Industry Council, BusinessEurope, and Insurance Europe hold the highest number of parliamentary passes, with 323, 295, and 268 respectively – collectively outnumbering MEPs in the parliament.
BusinessEurope also tops the league for the number of declared meetings with EU officials, having logged 467 meetings since 2014, followed by Google (381), Airbus (318), the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (241), and Meta (235).
The findings highlight the need for the EU to expand its existing lobbying restrictions—currently applied to the tobacco industry—to other critical policy areas, such as climate and environmental regulation, the advocacy groups argue.
“As a first step, the Commission should stop granting privileged access to industry lobbyists and ensure that civil society and community voices are heard loud and clear,” the transparency watchdogs emphasized.
Last month, the Commission introduced a major change to lobbying transparency by publishing minutes of meetings between lobbyists and senior officials, extending the disclosure requirement from 400 top officials to around 1,500.
The move got a mixed reaction, but the real impact will depend on how much information is actually disclosed.
Copyright AP Photo
By Paula Soler
Published on 24/02/2025
The world’s largest companies and trade associations from the big tech, banking, energy, and chemicals/agri sectors have significantly increased their EU lobbying budgets in recent years.
The 162 biggest corporations and trade associations collectively spent €343 million on lobbying EU legislators and officials over the past year, according to a new analysis.
Between February 2024 and February 2025, annual lobbying expenditures rose by 13%, and by nearly a third since 2020, according to a report from non-profit groups Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and LobbyControl.
However, these estimates remain conservative, as only entities spending over one million euros are required to disclose their lobbying budgets in the EU’s transparency register.
Among the highest-declaring corporates and associations are major big tech players like Meta and Microsoft, with lobbying budgets of €9 million and €7 million respectively, as well as the European Banking Federation, energy firm Shell, FuelsEurope, Bayer, Novartis, BusinessEurope, and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
With the Artificial Intelligence Act having entered into force last year, and the EU Commission planning to introduce the Clean Industrial Deal, an Action Plan on Affordable Energy, a Critical Medicines Act, and a Savings and Investments Union in 2025, all alongside an ongoing drive to slash red tape, the surge in lobbying budgets looks set to continue.
“We've seen a trend of increasing big tech lobbying for years, but the rise in spending by polluting industries such as energy and agri-chemicals over the past five years (44% and 31% respectively) clearly reflects the intense lobbying around the Green Deal,” CEO’s Vicky Cann told Euronews.
“With the Commission set to deliver a corporate-friendly Clean Industrial Deal later this week—alongside a massive deregulation push in the name of 'competitiveness'—it is deeply worrying that this industry lobbying appears to be paying off,” Cann added.
Both LobbyControl and CEO urge EU institutions to rethink lobbying rules and strengthen safeguards against regulatory capture, including the EU Transparency Register, which provides useful information for citizens to track lobbying activity.
“A legally binding lobby register is the only way to impose meaningful sanctions for posting inaccurate data and, in turn, improve the overall quality of the EU lobby register,” the advocacy groups said on Monday, as the platform is due to be reviewed by July 2025.
The analysis also examines the number of meetings between lobbyists and EU officials and the number of badges granting them access to the European Parliament.
The European Chemical Industry Council, BusinessEurope, and Insurance Europe hold the highest number of parliamentary passes, with 323, 295, and 268 respectively – collectively outnumbering MEPs in the parliament.
BusinessEurope also tops the league for the number of declared meetings with EU officials, having logged 467 meetings since 2014, followed by Google (381), Airbus (318), the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (241), and Meta (235).
The findings highlight the need for the EU to expand its existing lobbying restrictions—currently applied to the tobacco industry—to other critical policy areas, such as climate and environmental regulation, the advocacy groups argue.
“As a first step, the Commission should stop granting privileged access to industry lobbyists and ensure that civil society and community voices are heard loud and clear,” the transparency watchdogs emphasized.
Last month, the Commission introduced a major change to lobbying transparency by publishing minutes of meetings between lobbyists and senior officials, extending the disclosure requirement from 400 top officials to around 1,500.
The move got a mixed reaction, but the real impact will depend on how much information is actually disclosed.
Copyright Euronews
By Hannah Brown & Angela Barnes
Published on 24/02/2025 s
“If you don't move forward, you fall off the bike,” is the warning from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s chief economist, Beata Javorcik.
Will the second Trump presidential term be the key influence on the global economy of 2025?
According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), it’s one of many causes for concern.
“The unwinding of globalisation is going to have negative consequences for the global economy,” Beata Javorcik, chief economist at EBRD, told Angela Barnes in the latest episode of The Big Question.
Fragmentation of the global economy
Beata’s two key concerns for 2025 are the impact of ongoing conflict and fragmentation of the global economy. She cited Brexit, the US-China trade war and Russian sanctions as long-term issues continue to pose economic risks.
For Europe to prosper, she explained, the bloc needed to heed the warnings set out in Mario Draghi’s 2024 The Future of European Competitiveness report.
“Europe will not be able to maintain its standards of living if it continues on its current path.
“But paradoxically, the shocks that Europe may experience in 2025 may focus minds and lead to action. It may be a now or never moment for Europe,” Beata added.
While Europe is currently awaiting further news on the proposed US trade tariffs, it’s not the only American move set to cause shock waves across the globe.
“Should the US Federal Reserve have to keep interest rates high for longer, this will translate into higher borrowing costs for emerging markets,” Beata explained.
“Many developing countries and emerging economies already are weighed down by a heavy burden of debt accumulated partially during the pandemic times.
“And high interest rates make the cost of servicing the debt quite high. Yes, inflation has helped to lessen the debt burden, but this burden remains quite substantial. And that's a concern.”
How are sanctions affecting the Russian economy?
Although it’s still unclear how new Russia-US relations will unfold over the next four years, Beata expressed that right now, Russia is starting to suffer the consequences of prolonged sanctions.
While some of the loss of trade from Europe has been filled by exports from China and Turkey, it’s not a direct replacement.
“The technological content of those exports is different and you see in the data that foreign affiliates located in those countries choose not to supply the Russian market.”
She also added that, as multinational companies have continued to exit the Russian market, this has led to cessation of new foreign direct investment (FDI).
“That means lower knowledge flows,” Beata explained.
“These are the effects that are not visible immediately. They work slowly, but they certainly are beginning to take a toll on the Russian economy.”
Although it’s still unclear how new Russia-US relations will unfold over the next four years, Beata expressed that right now, Russia is starting to suffer the consequences of prolonged sanctions.
While some of the loss of trade from Europe has been filled by exports from China and Turkey, it’s not a direct replacement.
“The technological content of those exports is different and you see in the data that foreign affiliates located in those countries choose not to supply the Russian market.”
She also added that, as multinational companies have continued to exit the Russian market, this has led to cessation of new foreign direct investment (FDI).
“That means lower knowledge flows,” Beata explained.
“These are the effects that are not visible immediately. They work slowly, but they certainly are beginning to take a toll on the Russian economy.”
Where in Europe will we see growth in 2025?
Fortunately, 2025 isn’t all doom and gloom with Beata adding that she’s “very optimistic about services in emerging Europe”.
While the increased implementation of AI is set to affect eastern and western European job markets in completely different manners, Beata sees Eastern Europe thriving in the IT services sector.
“The fact that many of them are in Schengen, in the same time zone, have the same data protection regime as the Western European countries bodes well for greater exports of services.
“As companies are considering their carbon footprint, they are discovering that carbon emissions embodied in services they buy constitute a big chunk of that carbon footprint. So the proximity of Eastern European countries makes them more attractive as suppliers of ICT services.”
The Big Questionis a series from Euronews Business where we sit down with industry leaders and experts to discuss some of the most important topics on today’s agenda.
Watch the video for the full conversation with Beata Javorcik from EBRD.
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