Lobbying - How the private sector hijacked the Omnibus Directive

The report argues that the European Commission's 'Omnibus I' proposal, unveiled on February 26, 2025, represents a shift toward deregulation driven by disproportionate private sector influence. Analysis of meeting logs shows that Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné and his office met almost exclusively with business interests, while excluding civil society, NGOs, and trade unions. This lobbying resulted in significant setbacks for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), including the removal of obligations for financial services to undergo due diligence reviews.

• The 'Omnibus I' proposal, presented on February 26, 2025, seeks to weaken the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), contradicting previous claims by Stéphane Séjourné that his mandate would not mean deregulation.
• Proposed changes to the CSDDD include limiting the 'value chain' scope to direct 'Tier 1' partners, extending the frequency of regular assessments from annually to every five years, and removing the obligation to implement climate transition plans and the harmonised civil liability regime.
• Proposed changes to the CSRD would reduce the number of affected companies by over 80% by restricting the scope to those with more than 1,000 employees and €50 million in revenue, while also removing sector-specific reporting standards.
• Analysis of meetings held by Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné reveals a heavy bias toward private interests; 100 of his 103 meetings between December 1, 2024, and October 1, 2025, were with private stakeholders with economic or financial expectations.
• The office of the Executive Vice-President also showed a strong preference for business interests, with 165 out of 190 meetings (approximately 87%) conducted with companies or private interest groups, including MEDEF and BusinessEurope.
• Lobbying by financial actors, such as the French Asset Management Association (AFG), specifically targeted the removal of Article 36(1) of the CSDDD, which would have required the Commission to report on the necessity of sustainability due diligence for financial services.
• The report claims the Omnibus I proposal satisfied 70% of the demands made by MEDEF.

APA

Reclaim Finance (2025). Lobbying - How the private sector hijacked the Omnibus Directive. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Lobbying-note-Reclaim-Finance.pdf

Chicago

Reclaim Finance. Lobbying - How the private sector hijacked the Omnibus Directive. 2025. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Lobbying-note-Reclaim-Finance.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Reclaim Finance |title=Lobbying - How the private sector hijacked the Omnibus Directive |date=October 2025 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Lobbying-note-Reclaim-Finance.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{reclaimfinance2025lobbying, author = {{Reclaim Finance}}, title = {{Lobbying - How the private sector hijacked the Omnibus Directive}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Lobbying-note-Reclaim-Finance.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }