New report by Fossil Free Politics reveals the close ties between the 2019-2024 Von der Leyen Commission and the fossil fuel industry.
Now the Von der Leyen Commission has reached its full-term, we analysed the number of meetings with fossil fuel lobbyists held by Commissioners and their cabinets.
The results are alarming: There have been nearly 900 meetings between Von der Leyen’s Commission and fossil fuel lobbyists during its term of office. Nearly once every working day for four and a half years. And this is likely an underestimate, as explained in our methodology. These results are in line with a previous, mid-term analysis done by Friends of the Earth Europe, conducted in June 2022.
That analysis of top-level meetings revealed already that meeting the fossil fuel industry was almost part of the daily routine in the Von der Leyen Commission.
In the first two and a half years of the Von der Leyen Commission – between December 2019 and May 2022 – the Commissioners and their cabinets had a total of nearly 500 meetings with fossil fuel companies or organisations with fossil fuel members.
So also in the two years since Friends of the Earth Europe’s last analysis – from May 2022 to May 2024 – the Von der Leyen Commission has had nearly 400 more meetings with the fossil fuel industry, continuing its near-daily lobby meetings with the industry.
Key findings
You can view our key findings in the factsheets and below:
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- Under Ursula von der Leyen’s leadership, Commissioners and their cabinets had nearly 900 meetings with fossil fuel lobbyists, in the last four and a half years. That’s nearly once every working day for four and half years.
- Hydrogen was the biggest topic of conversation with a total of 67 meetings. Thanks to their successful lobbying of the industry, it is now a major lynchpin of the Commission’s energy transition plans. The hydrogen lobby has a strong cross-over with Big Oil and Gas and spends €75.75 million a year lobbying the EU institutions.
- Shell was the most popular fossil fuel giant to meet up with and racked up a total of 46 meetings.
- The members of the 2019-2024 Von der Leyen Commission, who were meeting with oil and gas companies and their lobbyists the most were: Commissioner Kadri Simson, former Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal/Climate Action Commissioner Frans Timmermans, Executive vice- president/ European Green Deal Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, Transport commissioner Adina-Ioana Vălean, and Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
- There was a sevenfold increase in the number of meeting Ursula von der Leyen and her cabinet had with the fossil fuel industry after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Download the full report, factsheets and methodology.