Just as far-right forces crack down on civil society dealing with climate, a new study reveals that lobbyists from the top fossil-fuel industry organisations had over 1,000 meetings with MEPs within less than a year.
The study out Tuesday (24 June) by Transparency International EU, the Brussels-branch of the Berlin-based advocacy group, analysed over 31,000 meetings declared by MEPs since June 2024.
It found, among other things, that the European Parliament committee dealing with the environment held most of its meetings with ExxonMobil and FuelsEurope.
FuelsEurope, a large business association, ranks as one of the top 20 organisations for the European Parliament.
Within the committee, ExxonMobil met most often with MEPs from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest political grouping in the European Parliament.
This information is based solely on declared meetings, a new requirement by the European Parliament following lobbying scandals spanning Qatar to Huawei, a Chinese tech giant.
Not all MEPs appear to be following such rules.
The only group whose MEPs have all declared at least one lobbying meeting are the Greens. At 61.5 percent, the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations came in last place, according to the analysis.
The findings follow the wider crackdown on EU-funded NGOs dealing primarily on climate, amid claims by far-right forces led by the EPP they are being paid to lobby on behalf of the European Commission.
Nicola Procaccini, an Italian MEP and co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), has taken public credit for the NGO crackdown which led to the formation of scrutiny working group.
Procaccini's declared lobby meets also include ExxonMobil, Renault Group, Huawei Europe, as well as British American Tobacco.
Another tobacco giant, Philip Morris International, also ranks as among the top 20 organisations with the most meetings.
Other standout finding by the analysis casts doubt on the whether the far-right Patriots for Europe is declaring the meetings. As the third-largest group in the European Parliament, the Patriots for Europe represent only four percent of total published meetings.
Although the smallest of the political groups, the analysis also reveals that far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations, as well as non-attached members, repeatedly met with officials from Belarus, China and Russia.
Among those MEPs were Bulgarians Rada Laykova, Petar Volgin, Czech Ondřej Dostal, Germany's Michael von der Schulenburg, Slovak Milan Mazurek, plus others.
For her part, Laykova hails from the Vazrazhdane party in Bulgaria, which last month signed a cooperation agreement with Vladimir Putin's ruling party, United Russia.
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.
Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.