A group of NGOs published research that they say highlights how much oil and gas companies invest in trying to sway Brussels’ energy and climate decision-making | Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images Activists urge tobacco-style curbs on oil and gas lobbying in EU Industry spent more than €251 million on influencing bloc in last decade, green groups say.

Activists are calling on the EU to place curbs on lobbying by the oil and gas industry similar to those imposed on tobacco companies.

A group of NGOs this week published research that they say highlights just how much oil and gas companies invest in trying to sway Brussels’ energy and climate decision-making: at least €251 million since 2010 by the five biggest companies — BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total — and their lobby groups.

The industry has also held 327 official meetings with Jean-Claude Juncker's European Commission since it took office in 2014, the equivalent of more than one a week, according to the research. The study was carried out by an alliance of groups that campaign to reduce corporate influence in politics and step up action to protect the environment — Corporate Europe Observatory, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace EU.

“A cool quarter of a billion over the last decade buys a lot of access and influence in Brussels,” Pascoe Sabido, a researcher and campaigner for Corporate Europe Observatory, said in a statement.

The groups say the research supports their campaign for “fossil-free politics” — with goals inspired by a World Health Organization framework for limitations on the tobacco industry’s legislative influence. Such limitations would include withholding seats in expert and advisory bodies for oil and gas companies, denying them a role in governmental research bodies and ending private lobbying meetings.

Their push comes as the incoming European Commission gears up to embark on ambitious new climate goals and a so-called European Green Deal.

The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), a petrochemicals industry trade association, disputed the activists' assertion that its lobbying harmed efforts to tackle climate change — despite the fact that, as the research noted, the group lobbied in favor of fracking and to open Europe’s doors to U.S. shale gas.

Cefic said it plays an active role Europe’s transformation to a more low-carbon and circular economic model. Cefic has spent €75 million on influencing the EU since 2010, according to the research, making it the lobby group with the deepest pockets in Brussels.

ExxonMobil noted that it complies with the EU's Transparency Register, publicly volunteering how much it spends on advocating its positions.

The company also stressed its public commitment to tackling climate change. “We support the Paris climate agreement and we are dedicated to helping society meet the dual challenge of providing energy for the world’s growing population, while simultaneously addressing the risk of climate change,” said Johan Scharpé, ExxonMobil’s EU government affairs director.

Commission counters

The European Commission defended its engagement with the oil and gas industry. In a statement, the EU executive said it is "good practice" for politicians and officials to meet with external actors, particularly "with external stakeholders who are impacted by our policies to understand the potential consequences of our actions."

The Commission also stated that some of its meetings with the oil and gas industry did focus on renewable energy and ways to decarbonize the economy. It asserted that the number of meetings is not disproportionately high compared to meetings with other stakeholders including NGOs.

The Commission also said that research like the environmentalists' report was possible, in part, thanks to transparency initiatives undertaken by the Juncker Commission.

But environmentalists argue that both the oil and gas industry's attitude to climate change and its lobbying activities need fundamental change.

On the lobbying front, their model is the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted in 2003, which requires governments to take measures to protect health policy “from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.”

However, an inquiry published in December 2017 by the European Ombudsman found the EU had failed to adequately implement the convention's transparency requirements.

The Commission applied the framework only to its public health department, DG Health. That meant all tobacco industry meetings with DG Health top officials were proactively made public. But the ombudsman, the EU's transparency watchdog, said that didn't go far enough, as it didn't include meetings with legal service officials or less senior employees. And the proactive transparency policy is not systematically practiced, when it comes to tobacco, in other offices outside of DG Health, the ombudsman found.

The ombudsman concluded that the Commission "had not provided any good reasons for refusing to take the steps" that the watchdog had proposed to fully implement the convention.

Activists nonetheless argue that implementing measures based on the WHO framework would be an important step toward reducing the influence of the oil and gas industry in shaping public policy.

There should be restrictions on oil, coal and gas lobbyists "just like on the tobacco industry," said Myriam Douo, a campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe. "It’s unacceptable that the fossil fuel industry still has a seat at the climate table.”

Kalina Oroschakoff‏ contributed reporting.