The European Commission chooses to listen to the wishes of the far-right, instead of hearing the voices of the people, especially young people, by weakening legislation on climate and workers’ rights. This wave of deregulation makes us, Young friends of the Earth Europe, feel the need to speak up and fight these recent developments. Let us explain.
In 2024, a proposal was accepted in European politics forcing companies to adopt and implement a climate plan in line with the Paris Agreement. This was a necessary legislative step, as in the period of 2017 until 2022, 80 per cent of the total global emissions were caused by 57 companies only (InfluenceMap, 2024). Furthermore, climate litigation against major polluters shows that these corporations do not want to make environmentally sound decisions. However, whilst climate change is making people leave their homes and even killing others, the European Commission chose to weaken the earlier adopted Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (also known as CSDDD). In the Omnibus package, the Commission announced to water down key elements of the directive (European Commission, 2025, pp. 1-2). We believe that the European Commission has been listening to the wishes of big polluters, and not to those of the people, especially not to those of us, young people. YFoEE takes a clear stand against watering down regulations for companies.
The Commission, at first very ambitious, has shown a complete change in attitude towards corporate environmental due diligence. We see that the CSDDD directive has been limited in scope and the Commission has pushed back implementation and adoption deadlines. This shows a clear weakening of earlier agreed upon goals, which clearly is deregulation. Ursula von der Leyen wrote “Simplification promised, simplification delivered!” on X after publishing the Omnibus proposal (Von der Leyen, 2025), however, we see that that is a lie. Omnibus is not merely adapting rules to make them easier to understand or comply with, it scales down ambitions set in the CSDDD. In times of climate disaster, the Commission shows that limiting those disasters is not one of its main priorities. It paves the way for big polluting companies to continue causing extreme climate damage.
By supporting big corporations, the Commission lets down the environment and ignores worker’s rights. The only ones benefitting from this are the companies’ shareholders, as they receive most of the profits. That is money that could have been spent on better climate plans, or workers facilities, yet shareholders do not seem to care about those values (Van der Zwam & Asscheman, 2024). The sense of urgency of dealing with environmental issues seems to have moved into the background.
Nevertheless, it is of the utmost importance to deal with this crisis immediately. And that means admitting that we need to move to a system that does not focus solely on economic growth. The Commission states that Omnibus is needed to ensure an equal level playing field, to protect the European economy. Yet, the biggest threat to that economy is the climate crisis. As climate change impacts our access to resources, which are already limited, infinite economic growth is simply impossible (Johnsen et al., 2017). Toying with big oil corporations like the Commission is doing is unimaginable. That is why we believe that we need to build a post-growth society that focuses on equality, fairness and wellbeing, over profits and power. That way, we can and need to redistribute wealth to ensure a liveable planet for all. Only in this manner, we can limit the climate crises and protect younger and future generations.
The European Commission has often used terms like CSDDD, Omnibus and simplification. These complicated words have a vague meaning and are often interpreted in many different ways, making it impossible to understand for the general public. This means that less people can engage in the policy process. Language like this does not resonate with young people, making European politics less accessible. This is worrisome, since policy implemented today will impact our lives, the lives of young European citizens, the most. Public participation in government is one of the core pillars of a democracy (Gingras, 2012). By actively limiting the scope of people that can engage in policy processes, the Commission is showing signs of democratic backsliding. It uses difficult terms on purpose, leading our attention away from what they are really doing: ignoring the climate crisis.
This democratic backsliding can, unfortunately, be seen in multiple ways in this deregulation process. No public consultation has been carried out, which meant that the people were intentionally excluded and could not express their opinions on the recently reopened negotiations. Additionally, the re-election campaign of Ursula von der Leyen enrages us. We have seen the Commission’s president’s behaviour take a u-turn when it came to the CSDDD negotiations. In order to keep the support of her political group and get re-elected, Von der Leyen knew she would have to change her narrative towards a more level playing field focus, and away from a climate justice anchor (European Commission, 2024). Finally, the role of the European far right parties is crucial in this. In the past, most parties would not collaborate with the far right in order to create a majority, because their values were anti-democratic. However, Von der Leyen’s Commission knew they would not be able to create a majority with the Greens or the Social Democrats about the watering down of climate and workers rights legislation (Gross & Griera, 2025). This shows that the European Commission is flirting with the far right, as that political group would be necessary to push for their deregulation agenda.
We young people are not the leaders of tomorrow, we are the changemakers of today. The climate crisis is happening now, which means we need to act accordingly. Deregulation will not only lead to weakened climate goals, impacting young people heavily. It will also limit the oversight political and societal actors have of powerful and polluting corporations. This indicates that they can continue to cause harm to our environment. Therefore, we demand the European Commission to hear our voices, the voices of young Europeans, that request a full stop to the deregulation process that is already causing so much harm to people all over the world, the environment and the climate.
Everything in our power needs to be done to cease the wave of deregulatory measures in European politics. These recent developments will not cause polluting companies to act according to international climate agreements and stop causing dangerous climate change. We will fight corporate powers until they act in line with the Paris agreement. It needs to be utterly clear that we prioritise long-term public preferences over short-term profits. If the ones responsible for climate damage will not act, then the youth will unite forces and demand change.
References
- European Commission. (2025c, February 26). DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL, amending Directives 2006/43/EC, 2013/34/EU, (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements. EUR-Lex. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52025PC0081&
- European Commission. (2024, July 18). Statement at the European Parliament Plenary by President Ursula von der Leyen, candidate for a second mandate 2024-2029. https://enlargement.ec.europa.eu/news/statement-european-parliament-plenary-president-ursula-von-der-leyen-candidate-second-mandate-2024-2024-07-18_en
- Gingras, A. M. (2012). Access to information: An asset for democracy or ammunition for political conflict, or both?. Canadian Public Administration, 55(2), 221-246.
- Gros, M., & Griera, M. (2025, 21 februari). Europe’s divided Parliament could nuke von der Leyen’s plan to slash red tape. POLITICO. https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-divided-parliament-could-nuke-von-der-leyens-plan-to-slash-red-tape/
- InfluenceMap. (2024). The Carbon Majors Database: Launch report. (C) InfluenceMap 2020. https://carbonmajors.org/briefing/The-Carbon-Majors-Database-26913
- Johnsen, C G., Nelund, M., Olaison, L., Meier Sørensen, B. (2017) Organizing for the Post-growth Economy. Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization, 17(1): 1-21
- Leyen, von der, U. (2025, 25 februari). Simplification promised, simplification delivered! X. https://x.com/vonderleyen/status/1894744853847920846
- Zwam, von der, M. & Asscheman, E. (2024). Hun winst, ons verlies. Milieudefensie. https://milieudefensie.nl/actueel/rapport-hunwinstonsverlies/@@download/file/02451-OPM%20rapport%20Winst%20schade%2012.pdf