Civil Society Exposing EU Commission's Closed-Door Compromising of Health and Environmental Policies

In late April, seven civil society groups led by ClientEarth and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice formally challenged the European Commission's latest regulatory overhaul. In its complaint to the European Ombudsman, the NGO coalition argues that the Commission excluded civil society from meaningful input as it fast-tracked the sustainability rules-diluting "omnibus" simplification package unveiled earlier this year.

This missive comes on the heels of a February letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, where NGOs denounced the EU executive's "inadequate consultation process," notably citing Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis's private omnibus talks with industry representatives and only a few token non-profits. Beyond "sidelining civil society," the EU's NGOs lament a rising tide of "corporate capture," within the Commission.

The omnibus controversy fits into a broader pattern of centralised, opaque policymaking under von der Leyen's tenure. Nowhere has this trend been more visible than in the EU executive's shadowy dealings with the tobacco industry, whose influence has eroded vital public health policies. Encouragingly, European civil society is equally stepping up to Big Tobacco's lobbying incursions, challenging the Commission's transparency failures and advancing reforms to shield environmental and public health rules from closed-door gutting.

ClientEarth's Sustainability Concerns Shared in Brussels

Anchoring her second term to a sweeping pro-business agenda, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to slash EU red tape in the name of competitiveness—an agenda reflecting the growing pressure from the rightward shift in her own EPP party following the far right's electoral gains. Yet, when the Commission launched its first "omnibus" deregulation package in late February, most in Brussels were caught off guard, with the The Greens swiftly denouncing a "rushed process," that "goes against the principles of good governance and is inherently undemocratic."

While the EU executive maintains that the omnibus package merely streamlines rules and reduces bureaucracy, MEPs and civil society actors have cautioned that reopening existing legislation under this guise inevitably leads to weaker environmental and social protections. Moreover, environmental NGOs, trade unions, and green finance advocates stress that the reforms heavily favour industry concerns supported by a recent analysis indicating that 70% of the omnibus proposal aligns with corporate lobby demands.

Across Brussels, officials, lawmakers, and advocacy groups describe an increasingly centralised policymaking machine that bypasses the usual checks and balances. One Commission insider summed it up bluntly: "It's all decided at the top," with this worrying trend equally reflected in the EU executive's opaque approach to civil society questioning. ClientEarth notably described the Commission's official response to the complaint as "short, dismissing and vague." The ball is now in the European Ombudsman's court, with Brussels's watchdog set to decide whether to launch an inquiry into possible maladministration.

Anne Sophie-Pelletier's SANITAS Spotlighting Big Tobacco-Led Manipulation

The Commission's omnibus transparency failure is deeply reminiscent of the long-running controversies surrounding Big Tobacco's corrupting policy influence—a critical issue brought back under the spotlight by the president of a new Belgian NGO in a later April letter addressed directly to von der Leyen.

Penned by former French MEP Anne-Sophie Pelletier, this timely dispatch highlights the recent creation of her new NGO, SANITAS, founded to widely expose the tobacco lobby's pernicious impact on Europe's public and environmental health and contribute to ambitious, WHO-aligned revisions of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Tobacco Taxation Directive (TTD) expected to surface in 2025 after years of delays NGOs attribute to the Big Tobacco lobby.

Pelletier's letter emphasises the troubling 'revolving door' dynamics between Big Tobacco and Commission officials, drawing on the findings of a White Paper she co-authored with former S&D MEP Pierre Larrouturou and the late MEP Michèle Rivasi of the Greens with the backing of leading civil society actors including the University of Bath's Tobacco Control Research Group, Alliance Contre le Tabac (ACT) and the Smoke-Free Partnership (SFP). At the heart of Pelletier and her NGO coalition's concerns is the Dentsu-Hoffman affair, which she outlines in her letter to von der Leyen.

Dentsu Tracking in Crosshairs of Anti-tobacco Watchdogs

Enabled by the Commission's glaring transparency issues—which Pelletier's letter reminds have been repeatedly deemed to constitute maladministration by previous EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly—Swiss firm Dentsu Tracking managed to lobby the Commission for a lucrative contract as an operator of the EU's tobacco traceability system for years without registering in the EU Transparency Register. Crucially, the firm only rectified this situation last year after facing intense scrutiny from Pelletier and a group of fellow MEPs, with the White Paper's authors pointing to the tobacco lobby's backing as a decisive factor in Dentsu's successful bid.

Underscoring the severity of this governance lapse, Jan Hoffman, a Commission official previously responsible for tobacco traceability, joined Dentsu in a senior regulatory affairs role shortly after the Commission awarded the firm its contract without an open tender process. Moreover, the White Paper flags Dentsu's ties to the industry, with the Swiss firm acquiring a company, Blue Infinity, that contributed to the Philip Morris International-developed Codentify system, largely panned by tobacco control experts as a Big Tobacco Trojan horse to manipulate global track and trace.

With other EU traceability providers—namely Inexto and Atos—similarly eliciting controversy for their deep Big Tobacco links, the EU's system has been found in breach of the WHO FCTC Protocol's industry independence and lobbying transparency requirements. Hardly a mere technocratic infringement, this governance transgression is directly responsible for the ineffectiveness of the bloc's traceability system, with Pelletier and her civil society colleagues blaming its flaws for the EU's surging illicit trade and €20 billion in annual tax losses.

Civil Society Blueprint for EU Transparency Overhaul

As the campaigns led by SANITAS and ClientEarth make clear, the European Commission still requires far greater scrutiny to ensure policymaking is transparent, democratic, and responsive to citizens' health and environmental concerns.

Moving forward, civil society coalitions across sectors must join forces, working closely alongside pro-transparency MEPs with public health influence, such as SANT Committee member Ignazio Marino, to demand and shape citizen-first policy and transparency reforms while pushing back against the far-right's cynical efforts to scrap new safeguards implemented since Qatargate. This NGO-led movement will be especially critical as the European Commission's new "simplification" agenda expands in scope.

The EU executive's handling of the omnibus reforms and its opaque engagement with the tobacco industry expose a deeper problem: policymaking in Brussels is slipping further into the hands of corporate interests. Promising "at least" five omnibus packages in 2025, the Commission's streamlining in the shadows risks accelerating corporate influence over EU policymaking. At stake is the very core of what the EU should stand for: safeguarding the health and well-being of its citizens and the planet, as well as the legitimacy of democratic governance.