Polluters get paid

That’s because the CID is a ‘deal’ invented by industry for industry, including the worst polluters in Europe. Corporate Europe Observatory has tracked the plan since Big Polluters first demanded it at a closed meeting between Ursula von der Leyen and then-Council President de Croo in Antwerp last February. Industry’s ten demands all appear to be met. The CID was also the result of the ‘Clean Transition Dialogues’ dominated by corporations, particularly energy companies and the fossil fuel industry.

Now industry is set to exert considerable influence on how the CID develops. No wonder some of them rank as the biggest spenders on the Brussels lobbying scene. 

This corporate capture will have multiple – and expensive – negative impacts, not least massive spending on false solutions to the climate crisis, even as weather disasters get ever more destructive. Meanwhile there is no reference to the European Green Deal’s ambition for “a toxic-free environment", meaning the use of harmful chemicals will continue, with resulting heavy costs for human health, the environment, and the economy. 

• Climate change researcher Pascoe Sabido says: “This dirty deal is what happens when you put those being regulated in charge of regulations. The CID funnels public money and political support to Europe’s most polluting industries and their favourite false climate solutions. Rather than phase out fossil fuels and oversee a just transition, the EU plans to pump billions into new gas, carbon capture, and hydrogen infrastructure while setting up new carbon offset markets and deregulating in favour of industry. This will further enrich oil and gas investors while ordinary people struggle.” 

   

• Environmental justice researcher Vicky Cann says: “Today's Clean Industrial Deal entirely delivers on the corporate welfare and deregulation agenda demanded by the chemical industry’s Antwerp Declaration exactly one year ago, in a shocking case of regulatory capture. Instead of 'the polluter pays' principle, this Toxic Deal prioritises 'the polluter gets paid', leaving the public to foot the huge bill for the health and environmental consequences of chemical pollution. Industry persuaded the Commission to ignore the overwhelming urgency to phase out harmful chemicals and synthetic pesticides. It's time to tackle the huge political leverage of this sector." 
  
   
• Researcher Kenneth Haar said: “Far from helping Europe ‘compete’, there’s a long history showing what a bad idea it is to let the most polluting industries set the agenda. Dieselgate showed how co-regulation with the car industry only prolonged the agonies of combustion engines, arguably weakening Europe’s EV game. And the very energy intensive industries the CID awards with massive state aid, have been those sprayed with cash for the last 20 years via the Emissions Trading System, leaving them with no incentive to make production cleaner. That expensive regulatory failure will cost us all – again.”

A European industrial policy could have made a positive difference. Instead of wasting billions on corporate welfare and false solutions, the Commission should introduce tougher regulations to ensure a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and a just transition for workers and communities, driving EU industry towards genuinely safer and cleaner production, as well as strong social and environmental conditionalities in public procurement and state aid. That would turn public spending into a powerful strategic tool to create a genuinely sustainable economy. 

For an indepth look at the Clean Industrial Deal see our briefing: 'What’s in the CID and what does it mean in reality?'.

Contacts:

Vicky Cann: +44 7960988096, vicky@corporateeurope.org

Kenneth Haar: +45 23600631, kenneth.haar@corporateeurope.org

Pascoe Sabido: +44 7969665189, pascoe@corporateeurope.org 

Notes to the editor:

1. The Antwerp Declaration, 20 February 2024: https://antwerp-declaration.eu/

2. The Clean Transition Dialogues, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/it/ac_23_4887

3. Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, The EU’s lobby league table. https://corporateeurope.org/en/2025/02/eus-lobby-league-table

4. Corporate Europe Observatory, Citizens groups denounce EU leaders’ secret polluters pact. https://corporateeurope.org/en/2024/02/citizen-groups-denounce-eu-leaders-secret-polluters-pact

5. Corporate Europe Observatory, Two years after Dieselgate: car industry still drives Berlin and Brussels. https://corporateeurope.org/en/power-lobbies/2017/09/two-years-after-dieselgate-car-industry-still-drives-berlin-and-brussels

6. Corporate Europe Observatory, Carbon Welfare – How big polluters plan to profit from EU emissions trading reform. https://corporateeurope.org/en/climate-and-energy/2016/12/carbon-welfare