A tour for EU diplomats jointly organised by Shell and the Dutch presidency of the EU has been branded a “blatant PR exercise” by campaigners.

An email seen by the Guardian invites energy attaches from the EU’s 28 countries to visit the Shell technology Centre, take an ‘oil majors and oil paintings’ tour of the Van Gogh Museum, and have lunch with Shell’s president in the Netherlands.

The hospitality event will take place during an informal summit in Amsterdam next month, when energy ministers are scheduled to discuss questions such as how to add more clean energy to the continent’s grid.

Shell successfully lobbied to end Europe’s renewable energy goals in 2020, arguing that gas could better meet EU climate goals. European art galleries and museums are increasingly cutting ties with fossil fuel firms, with BP last week ending its sponsorship of the UK’s Tate gallery group.

Brook Riley, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth Europe said: “It is disgraceful to see Shell splurging profits from dirty, dangerous gas extraction on a blatant PR exercise, with the full support of the Dutch government. It is no wonder the EU’s energy plans are assuming zero improvements in efficiency or renewables. They are acting as though climate change does not exist.”

As well as educational tours, the day-long programme organised by Shell will include a lunch hosted by the firm’s president in the Netherlands, Marjan van Loon, and an address by Shell officials at the company’s R&D lab before a tour that will address “the CCS [carbon capture and storage] experience”.



A Dutch diplomat denied that Shell would have the opportunity to lobby during the event and said that other gas companies would also be invited to participate in a “very interesting and normal” trip.

“Shell is not a fossil fuel firm,” he said. “It is an energy company and we want to focus on its work with innovative techniques such as CCS. It is not a ‘lobby exercise’ or a ‘Shell trip’ and I don’t see any harm in it at all.”

Royal Dutch Shell has a long-standing relationship with the Van Gogh Museum and the trip would allow diplomats to see techniques that Shell has developed for restoring oil paintings, the official added.

Shell is a national institution in the Netherlands but its activities are increasingly drawing domestic fire.

Residents of the Dutch city of Groningen are pursuing a class action suit against Shell and ExxonMobil for tremors associated with gas drilling which they say have damaged thousands of homes.

The Dutch government is part of the consortium that operates in Groningen, Europe’s biggest gasfield. Gas revenues from the site have declined from €15bn in 2013 to less than €4bn last year, but it still represents a major source of tax income for the Dutch state.

Hundreds of earthquakes have been registered since 1991 as a result of drilling that has damaged the homes of thousands of residents in one of the Netherlands’ poorest regions.

Shell is one of the world’s largest companies, with annual revenues equivalent to 84% of the Netherlands’ Gross Domestic Product.