Why Competitiveness is Becoming a Cover for “Pollute-As-Usual”

With EU leaders meeting on 12 February to discuss competitiveness, civil society organisations are sounding the alarm.

European Environmental Bureau

The push to rollback climate, environmental and health protections under the banner of "simplification” risks deepening – not solving – Europe’s economic and social crises.

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Europe’s largest network of environmental NGOs, tells EU leaders: enough is enough.

A gift for the slowest-movers

The EU Commission has been echoing narrative from industrial laggards that loosening environmental and social protections will boost its industrial competitiveness. On the contrary, strong environmental laws have historically delivered legal certainty, driven innovation and rewarded early movers. Sweden proves the point: a tech sector more than twice as productive as the EU average, thriving under some of Europe’s toughest environmental and labour standards.

The cost of inaction

Ursula von der Leyen’s letter to EU heads ahead of the summit claimed that simplification would generate €15 billion annually in administrative savings – a figure that ignores the wider costs of such ‘savings’.

Meanwhile:

•     Poor enforcement of existing environmental laws already costs Europe €180 billion annually.
•     Inaction on PFAS ("forever chemicals”) alone could cost €1.7 trillion by 2050, according to a recent EU Commission study.

Who pays the price

Deregulation quietly shifts costs onto citizens. Weakening environmental, health and climate protections does not simplify life; it transfers the burden from polluters onto households, public health systems, communities, and taxpayers. Around 182,000 premature deaths attributable to air pollution in Europe. As EU policymakers talk about weakening water laws for the mining sector, only 29% of Europe’s surface water achieved a good chemical status.

It also penalises innovators and early movers and erodes trust in EU governance, as recently seen with a proposed exemption for fertilisers under the implementation of CBAM.

Public pushback is real

Recent months show the depth of public concern:

• In just a few days, over 175,000 people have signed the Hands Off Nature petition, calling on European leaders to stop environmental deregulation.
• Nearly 200,000 citizens responded to a Commission consultation defending EU nature laws; the highest participation ever recorded.