December 5, 2025
Devil’s in the due diligence
The US polluters that are rewriting the EU's human rights and climate law
Leaked lobby playbook sparks EU meltdown—rage, cynicism, and memes erupt
TLDR: Leaked docs allege a US‑led oil lobby worked to weaken the EU’s new rule forcing companies to take responsibility for human rights and climate harms. Commenters are split between fury at leaders, cynics calling it normal lobbying, and jokers dubbing Big Oil “demonic”—but everyone smells a power play.
Leaked files say a hush‑hush club of mostly US oil giants—Chevron, ExxonMobil, and friends—plotted to gut the EU’s big new rulebook that would make companies clean up human rights and climate harms. The law, called the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (translation: make big companies responsible for what happens in their supply chains), was allegedly targeted with help from PR fixer Teneo and a paid think tank megaphone, while SOMO says the group even tried to rally non‑EU governments to pile on. That’s the report—now the comments are chaos.
One camp is fuming at politicians: a top‑liked jab says even EU darlings like Macron “have to go,” lumping him with Germany’s conservative Merz. Another camp shrugs: it’s “business as usual,” just lobbying doing what lobbying does, so why act surprised? And then there’s the burn‑it‑down crowd calling the behavior of Big Oil so cartoonishly evil it’s “demonic possession.” Meanwhile, the bureaucracy‑skeptics are cheering, arguing these directives are “useless paperwork” and nobody will miss them.
The hottest tussle: Is this a democracy heist or normal politics? Some see a “divide and conquer” blueprint that proves the system is rigged; others say the real problem is EU ivory‑tower lawmaking that invites this mess. The only thing everyone agrees on? The vibes are rotten—and the memes are 🔥 with “Competitiveness Roundtable” getting roasted as the most boring name for a villain squad ever.
Key Points
- •Leaked documents obtained by SOMO describe a coordinated “Competitiveness Roundtable” of 11 multinationals—mostly US fossil fuel firms—working to dilute or scrap the EU’s CSDDD.
- •The coalition targeted the European Commission, European Parliament, Council of the EU, and European national governments, with tactics including “divide and conquer” and sidelining Commission departments.
- •Chevron and ExxonMobil allegedly led efforts to mobilize non‑EU pressure, including pushing CSDDD onto the US‑EU trade agenda and recruiting other countries to oppose it.
- •Roundtable companies funded the TEHA Group to produce research and an event that echoed their positions and questioned the Commission’s economic assessment of CSDDD.
- •Teneo is identified as facilitating the Roundtable’s strategy; the article claims these efforts extended to weakening other EU sustainability laws, including the CSRD.