Lobbyists from US oil giants ExxonMobil and Koch Industries, mining company Nyrstar, French energy firm TotalEnergies and car hire multinational Enterprise Mobility made the trip in May to a sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg with a plan.
The group was being advised by Teneo, a New York-based firm, about how best they could lobby the EU system.
Leaked internal records of discussions between Teneo and the group of predominantly US firms, seen by The Irish Times, detail a sophisticated and co-ordinated campaign to lobby for new EU regulations on companies to be rolled back.
The documents reveal the methods used by large multinationals and lobbying firms to shape the political system towards their interests.
RM Block
The records, leaked to non-governmental Dutch corporate watchdog Somo and shared with The Irish Times, include notes and presentation slides prepared by Teneo for 17 meetings of a group of companies, discussing a behind-the-scenes campaign targeting two key EU laws.
The ad-hoc group, called the Competitiveness Roundtable, included ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, US oil giants Chevron and Baker Hughes, bankers JP Morgan and car rental firm Enterprise, among others.
In their sights were two EU rules due to come into effect shortly.
One would require large companies to investigate and clamp down on human rights abuses or environmental harm within their supply chains, and the other would make firms regularly report on the impact their business had on the environment.
When European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen started her second term at the top of the EU’s executive body late last year, making Europe more economically competitive was high on the agenda. The German politician said that would mean “simplifying” rules coming from Brussels, to cut the amount of red tape on businesses.
The supply-chain due diligence and sustainability reporting rules were two of the laws open for review.
The leaked internal records show how Teneo was brought in by ExxonMobil, Koch and the other companies to help them get both rules watered down.
The corporate lobbyists started drawing up a list of influential MEPs who would have an input in how the laws were pared back.
The internal slides laid out a series of meetings that had been arranged with MEPs during a monthly voting session in Strasbourg in May.
Teneo advisers made the trip to the French city, as did the in-house lobbyists of ExxonMobil, Koch Inc, JP Morgan, Enterprise Mobility, TotalEnergies and Nyrstar. In a meeting afterwards, the group took stock.
There was a sense the political groupings on the centre and the left, Renew, the Socialists and Democrats, and the Greens, were split, a May 9th record stated.
The European People’s Party (EPP), which includes Fine Gael and other centre-right parties in governments across Europe, were “open” to teaming up with hard-right populist parties.
Outside pressure and “noise” would be important in shaping the debate, the meeting heard.
The group discussed “priority” amendments it wanted in revised versions of the laws.
The firms were not happy that the due diligence laws would apply to multinationals incorporated outside the EU, who had a large turnover in Europe.
They also opposed measures making them liable for unintentionally failing to comply with the new rules.
Parallel lobbying efforts targeting national governments were to be stepped up, the records said.
Slides dated May 16th show a list of “tier one targets” on the European Parliament’s legal, finance and other committees, followed by a second-order list of MEPs who might be peeled off to support the corporate group’s position.
The governments of Spain, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands would need to be “neutralised”, as likely opponents of plans to undo the reforms, records said.
Conservative German chancellor Friedrich Merz was seen as a backer of deregulation.
Teneo and the firms discussed how tariff negotiations between the EU and US would “continue adding pressure” on Brussels to roll back its rules.
Elsewhere, French president Emmanuel Macron made an important intervention in the debate at a business summit in Versailles, calling for the due diligence rules to be scrapped.
The group assessed the shift several days later. “In a sense this is very typical of Macron, putting himself in the limelight. He’s also a ‘lame duck’ president,” a slide analysing the move said.
Still, it was felt the French government was now on board. The positions of Macron and Merz were to be wrapped into lobbyists’ future speaking points.
The discussion heard commission officials had been “extremely defensive” of proposals to extensively rewrite the laws at a recent event.
Lobbyists from Teneo and some of the firms travelled to Strasbourg again in June to “catch remaining targets” from a list of “tier 1 and tier 2 MEPs”.
Those on the ground were told to be on the watch for “unplanned encounters”, outside the arranged meetings and coffees.
At the end of that month the Competitiveness Roundtable reviewed where things stood.
It had sat down with 18 MEPs and their assistants and had a better sense of how to approach the issue with the parliament. A key vote in October was in the diary.
Internal documents show the group hoped to “split” centrist and left-leaning MEPs from their political groupings, by getting them to vote along national lines.
The meeting tossed around a possible social media campaign on LinkedIn to make use of promoted “dark posts”, which are not visible on a company’s profile.
Separately, the documents detail a plan to increase lobbying activity in large and “friendly” EU states, such as Germany, France, Italy and Poland and Hungary.
The ad-hoc coalition of multinationals was hopeful of a “rightleaning majority” in the parliament – which would probably require votes from far-right parties – to gut aspects of the laws.
The slides said “friendly MEPs” would be asked to table amendments if required. “Ensure right-wing MEPs turn up to vote,” was another point on the to-do list.
Records dated July 11th state pressure at the political level would be needed to get officials inside the EU commission to “accept meaningful simplification” in negotiations between the union’s institutions.
Individual companies would make representations to national governments, given they would also have a say in any changes.
ExxonMobil would lobby Germany, Hungary and Romania, while Koch Inc would look after Poland. TotalEnergies would talk to Paris and Copenhagen. Enterprise car rental, which has a presence in Ireland, was listed as planning to lobby the Irish government.
In the commission, von der Leyen and her top adviser, Bjoern Seibert, as well as EU justice commissioner Michael McGrath, were “targets” to try to influence. The belief was that decisions concerning contentious changes would be made at the top, rather than by officials.
A later note read: “Enterprise Mobility to update on Ireland and a potential bridge to McGrath”.
A spokeswoman for McGrath said the commissioner never met the car hire firm, nor was any sit-down requested. ExxonMobil did seek to meet the Irish commissioner to talk about the due diligence rules, but McGrath declined.
During the height of tensions in EU-US tariff negotiations last July, records show the lobby group again discussed whether the talks could be an avenue to get Brussels to pare back some of the corporate regulations.
“US trade representative Jamieson Greer is aware of the [due diligence] issue and has instructed diplomatic staff to seek relief on the burdens,” the internal July 18th note said.
The EU successfully kept its book of rules out of a final deal on tariffs, but had to accept import taxes of 15 per cent on future goods sold to the US.
In separate votes the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, the body representing the member states, agreed to significantly pare back the scope of the due diligence and sustainability reporting regulations, majorly reducing the number of companies the rules would apply to.
Negotiations to settle the final revisions between the council, parliament and the commission are ongoing, but could conclude as early as this week.
Evie Clarke, co-ordinator of the Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights, said the internal records revealed “a co-ordinated, transnational campaign to reshape legislation in secret, undermining environmental protection, workers’ rights and democratic accountability”.
In a statement, Teneo said it “does not discuss client engagements or disclose details of the advisory work we undertake”.
“What we can confirm is that we have supported several companies in communicating to a wide range of stakeholders and decisions makers, their concerns that the [regulations], in their current form, risk undermining the competitiveness of Europe,” it said.
An ExxonMobil spokesman said the oil corporation had been clear that the EU’s new supply chain regulations created unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. “We’ve openly engaged with policymakers, business leaders, think tanks and others and it’s clear there’s widespread agreement across Europe and beyond on how fundamentally flawed this directive is,” he said.
TotalEnergies said it “conducts its advocacy in Brussels and in European capitals in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations”.
Other companies involved in the lobby group did not respond to requests for comment.
