Dealing with Deregulation: Civil Society and the Omnibus I Proposal

The European Green Deal set off one of the most ambitious waves of corporate governance regulations in the EU, aiming to shift private investments and corporate activity to support the green transition. These policy debates have often pitted a ‘good’ coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and progressive companies against a ‘bad’ group of large corporations lobbying to dilute the final regulations. But what happens when such regulations are revisited? In February 2025, amidst geopolitical and institutional shifts, the European Commission announced its first ‘Omnibus’ package, which delays and proposes revisions to several corporate governance directives. The so-called ‘simplification’ wave – labelled ‘deregulation’ by many CSOs and experts – has shifted the political environment in which these advocacy organisations are operating. Corporations that previously opposed or lobbied to water down regulations are now pushing for the same regulations to remain unchanged; typical processes of the EU are not being followed; and NGOs’ natural political allies push for deregulation. In this paper, we examine the effects of this deregulatory environment on NGO advocacy. We compare NGOs’ lobbying on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Omnibus I proposal to explore how NGOs harness this changing environment in their coalitions and external communications. The results are important to understand how organisations across political-economic sectors can work together for green transition policies, particularly in less favourable, shifting (geo)political environments.