Corporate lobby spending in Brussels has risen by 50% since 2020, and the number of registered lobbyists has grown by 30%. Cross-posted from Corporat e Europe Observatory Corporate spending on lobbying the EU keeps on rising – and the lobbyists are getting bigger results than ever before. The 2026 EU corporate lobby league, published by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, reveals that the top industry lobbyists (all those with €1 million-plus declared influencing budgets) are spending almost €381.75 million annually on lobbying the European Union institutions. That is 50% more than in 2020; and the number of registered industry organisations has risen by nearly 30% in the same time period.
And it’s paying off: in the era of the von der Leyen 2 European Commission – and a right-wing majority in the European Parliament – politicians are delivering industry-friendly policies at an unprecedented rate.
The full analysis is available here and texts in German here . The full dataset is available here .
Lobby league
Using data scraped from LobbyFacts , the EU corporate lobby league 2026 reveals that companies and industry associations with a declared annual lobby budget of at least €1 million — 173 in total — now collectively spend a minimum of €381.75 million per year lobbying EU institutions – nearly 50% more than in 2020. The total sum of all corporate spending on EU lobbying, including those with spends below €1 million would, of course, be even higher. Sector by sector
Our analysis confirms that companies and trade associations from Big Tech; Banking and Finance; Energy; Chemicals and Agri-business; and Cross-sector are the largest industries lobbying in Brussels. By sector, the analysis reveals:
The highest-spenders within the tech industry have the biggest annual lobby spend overall at €73 million, which is used to oppose strong rules to protect our digital rights. Energy industry giants (€52 million annual lobby budget) are using geopolitical crises such as the Iran war to lobby for a resurgence of fossil fuels, as well as to rebrand false solutions to the climate crisis as sustainable. The biggest chemical corporations and their trade associations are spending their lobby budgets (totalling €46.5 million) on weakening rules to protect citizens from harmful chemicals and pesticides. Deregulation
We are living through a corporate lobby bonanza and these steadily-rising budgets show that companies and trade associations regard this as a worthwhile investment that is paying off. The biggest deregulation wave ever seen in the EU has already delivered 10 so-called omnibus proposals (these are single, sweeping legislative packages that amend or cut several existing EU laws and regulations at once).
In addition the EU proposal for a so-called 28 th regime (aptly called EU Inc), will make it easier for companies – including the very largest – to side-step national rules upholding workers’ rights, while the Commission’s ‘One Europe, One Market’ roadmap lists a huge number of future problematic deregulatory, competitiveness-related initiatives, such as further omnibus packages on energy and taxation, and a new banking deregulation package to be adopted before the end of 2027. Further deregulation of permitting procedures (eg for permits to build polluting projects such as mines, date centres, chemical plants) are also in the pipeline. Meanwhile the Commission recently promised a new ‘Action Plan on Regulatory Deep Cleaning’, an avalanche of further deregulation in 12 different policy areas, including taxation, agriculture, transport, energy, climate, digital matters, housing, and permits, and other measures which risk curtailing the democratic right of national governments to regulate in order to solve social and environmental problems.
As Corporate Europe Observatory has recently documented , the Commission has directly invited industry to steer this agenda, opening up new channels of ‘consultation’ (including ‘reality checks’ and ‘implementation dialogues’) which are cementing industry’s influence at the heart of Commission decision-making. Over-reporting and under-reporting by corporate lobbies
This is a portrait of corporations and their lobbyists getting more powerful in Brussels. But it is a partial portrait. That’s because the EU lobby transparency register is not legally-binding and the absence of effective sanctions means the quality of the data is only as good as that which the registrants voluntarily provide.
Concerningly, there appears to be a significant problem of corporations under-reporting their lobby budgets. That is why we believe the total lobbying budget figure of €381.75 million for these high spenders is likely to be an under-estimate. Our report and dataset contain several examples of possible corporate under-reporting, which we believe merit investigation by the EU lobby register secretariat.
There is also a substantial problem of over-reporting lobby budget data. Out of the original 189 entries declaring a €1 million+ lobby budget, we removed 16 entries where that level of lobby spending seemed implausibly high, giving us the final 173 entries analysed in this briefing. More information is included in our dataset .
Demands
With some parts of decision-making being steadily captured by corporate interests at the expense of the interests of citizens, action is urgently needed to protect action on the climate and environmental pollution crises, and to preserve digital rights.
This analysis reinforces the case for lobby firewalls to protect public decision-making from commercial interests. The EU institutions are already committed to protect their decision-making from tobacco lobby influence, and although this is very imperfectly implemented, it shows officials understand there is a clear and justifiable precedent for firewalls against lobbying which harms the public interest. The rationale to extend such a lobby firewall approach to protect action on the climate and environmental pollution crises, and to preserve our digital rights in the face of the threat from Big Tech, is compelling.
As a first step, the Commission should stop providing privileged access to industry lobbies and ensure that other voices, for example from the general public, civil society, and independent scientists and researchers, are heard loud and clear. And the EU lobby transparency register must be made legally-binding on registrants, to tackle the significant problem of inaccurate data which litters the register, and which this report also highlights. The full analysis is available here and texts in German here . The full dataset is available here . BRAVE NEW EUROPE is one of the very few Resistance Media in Europe. We publish expert analyses and reports by some of the leading thinkers from across the world who you will not find in state and corporate mainstream media. Support us in our work
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