Dear reader
We’re still pulling no punches, and we’re as determined as ever. This week brought developments that everyone should know about. Democracy, the foundation of civic freedom and our life in Europe, is under increasingly violent assault. With each passing day, the shameless calls to dismantle the rules that protect us and our natural world continue. Those leading this charge would like to silence us. But our resistance and collective resolve are growing louder. Now is the time to get firmly behind the movement to defend life as we know it. Here’s how you can help. As ever, there’s some good news too! We hope you enjoy the read.
💗 But first, an important announcement from our editorial team 💗
For two years, every week we have brought you the freshest updates on European environmental policy, completely free. We do it because an informed community is powerful. But now we need your help. From dirty lobbies, smear campaigns and billionaire bullies to the collapse of climate and nature, we are facing a lot. Winter break is around the corner, and our one wish in our letter to Santa is to keep fighting for what we love. Help us make it happen by becoming an EEB supporter.
🪓 NATURE AND HEALTH UNDER SIEGE
EU wields axe over vital protections – This week, the EU Commission published its ‘Environmental Omnibus’ (translation: its calculated plan to gut multiple EU environmental protection laws through a rushed, opaque, and undemocratic process, in violation of its own rules of procedure). Our analysis.
Not a set of isolated technical tweaks. The EU Commission’s latest plans risk a surge in industrial pollution and toxic exposure. By weakening the Industrial Emissions Directive and scrapping the SCIP (chemicals monitoring) database – key tools for tracking harmful substances – the EU would open the floodgates to more industrial pollution and less oversight to control it.
We’re talking about core environmental protections. The announced review of the Water Framework Directive (to favour harmful industries such as mining) threatens already fragile freshwater ecosystems, increasing health risks and weakening natural defences against climate impacts. Meanwhile, a “stress test” for the Birds & Habitats Directive is out of touch with the reality of Europe’s biodiversity crisis.
At a time when healthy ecosystems are essential for climate resilience, these moves would prioritise short-term industry demands over the long-term wellbeing of people and nature.
These attacks reflect a broader pattern: weakening the EU Deforestation Regulation, scaling back protections against hazardous chemicals and pesticides, creating new avenues for pollution, and jeopardising accountability for polluters. In doing so, this agenda reaches beyond environmental matters and corrodes democracy itself.
Our position leaves no doubt: this aggressive dismantling of vital protections will serve to sideline people and nature, instead favouring a handful of big business interests hellbent on boosting profit margins at any cost.
How would this affect me? If the Commission succeeds in ramming through this agenda of destruction, the effects could be catastrophic for Europe’s ecosystems and wildlife – and directly, also for us. Air will become increasingly unbreathable. Our waters would become too toxic to bathe in or fish in. The sound of country birdsong – a fading memory. The serenity of a forest – gone.
We stand united with our members, partners, and citizens across Europe and beyond to resist this reckless and short-sighted move.
“The Commission is breaking its own rules to tear up the laws that keep us safe. This is not simplification, it is self-sabotage. It puts our health and environment at risk, weakens Europe’s competitiveness and creates chaos for businesses who rely on legal certainty. Who exactly are they doing this for?” said Faustine Bas-Defossez, Policy Director, EEB
✊ UNITED IN OPPOSITION
Against nature. The EU’s own body, the European Environment Agency, published a sobering report this year on the state of Europe’s environment. In summary, we’re wildly off-track: “The outlook for most environmental trends is concerning and poses major risks to Europe’s economic prosperity, security and quality of life.”
Against people’s will. The EU’s Hands Off Nature campaign, in the space of just ten days, gathered the voices of nearly 200,000 people – scientists, civil society, concerned citizens – who care about nature and will not stand by as EU institutions and Member States oversee its destruction. See the Hands Off Nature reaction.
Against the law. Last week, the EU’s Ombudswoman found the Commission’s “omnibus” packages impossible to justify. She made it clear: the Commission is ignoring its own Better Regulation internal guidelines, sidestepping transparency and due process by deliberately squeezing “consultation” processes into a 24-hour window over a weekend, and labelling whatever it wants as an “urgent” measure to justify the unjustifiable. The verdict: “maladministration”.
Against businesses. Calls from businesses are growing louder: business stability and investor confidence need regulation and clarity. Most EU businesses favour strong sustainability standards. Yet the current orchestrated chaos of deregulation – the shredding of rules that keep the Union united, coherent and powerful – does nothing but cripple the EU’s competitiveness, both internally and globally. A divided Europe is a dream for external forces who’d rather we played by their ‘rules’.
🙅 A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF TOXIC PESTICIDES? NO THANKS
Not a conspiracy theory. One of the most alarming examples of these protections not just being weakened but hastily ripped away is the Commission’s proposal to remove virtually all conditions on the use of toxic (to be clear, deadly) pesticides in Europe.
Regulation = protection. These substances are regulated for one reason: to protect people’s health and nature from being exposed to their toxic and deadly effects. They are known to be at the root of multiple diseases, from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to fertility issues and neurological disorders. And that’s not even considering the harm they do to ecosystems.
Here’s how we fight back. We urgently need you to mobilise. On 16 December, the EU Commission will present its final plan before talks with Member States and Parliament – there’s still time to act. Raise your voice for safe food and nature free from toxic pesticides!
👖 FRANCE’S FAST-FASHION LAW: CIRCULAR ECONOMY BATTLES
Get this in Vogue. Sixty-six civil society organisations are urging the Commission to support a new French law designed to curb the most harmful overproduction practices in the fashion industry. With clothing sales soaring across Europe, more garments than ever are being discarded – piling huge pressure on ecosystems while driving textile collectors and sorters to breaking point.
Making rules to protect a la mode again. The updated Waste Framework Directive (WFD) requires EU countries to create “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR) schemes for producers. France wants to go further by using EPR fees to penalise business practices that drive overproduction in the fashion industry. However, the Commission has questioned whether France’s draft law fully aligns with the WFD…
“Walk the Talk”. Our position is clear: the Commission must match its words with action: EPR schemes should provide real incentives for brands to change. With low-value fashion items flooding global second-hand markets, Europe must act now to stem the tide of waste.
Spinning greenwash. If your clothes are made of recycled polyester, they are not as green as they sound… Our members at Changing Markets Foundation tested 51 garments from five major brands for microfibre shedding. Recycled polyester sheds MORE microfibres than virgin polyester when washed – “a sustainability fig leaf covering fashion’s deepening dependence on synthetic materials.” See which brands and the results. Fast fashion is not sustainable – thrift!
🗞️ IN OTHER NEWS ️
UN environmental negotiations. The world’s highest decision-making body on the environment met this week in Nairobi. With the US absent from the table, the EEB was there, helping bring together hundreds of organisations from across the globe to channel input into what proved to be very difficult negotiations – including on the mining of metals and minerals, and on under-appreciated ecosystems such as glaciers, karst and cave systems that are vital to water supplies worldwide. Progress was slow, but as negotiations closed, some key successes were achieved. We’ll dig deeper into what happened in next week’s edition. Stay tuned!
Time to tax the super-rich. This week, as the EU Parliament debated taxing the super-rich, the EEB joined civil society groups vividly highlighting the absurd and dangerous scale of inequality in Europe. Their message was clear: extreme wealth concentration isn’t just unfair, it’s destabilising our societies and eroding the foundations of democracy. The call for a fairer, more balanced system is growing louder. Time for policymakers to listen.
What’s happening with cars? Last night, EU lawmakers struck a deal to overhaul car design and end-of-life rules, merging outdated directives into a new circularity regulation. The package adds tools like a Circularity Vehicle Passport and EU-wide producer responsibility; however, last-minute concessions to industry weakened targets and delayed vital safeguards. These are delays that climate and people’s health can’t afford. See our joint reaction.
🧠✨ DOPAMINE HIT
As ever, here are a few happy updates to get your weekend off to a perky start:
- ICARUS’ Wildlife Tracking System to Resume Operations after Launching to Orbit. Read more here
- Kakapos, the world’s only flightless parrot, have enjoyed their most productive breeding season since 1977. Read more here
- A new study finds that regreening cities could help save 1.1 million lives in 2 decades. Read more
- Nearly 3x more encounters with Sumatran Tigers with camera trap photos than in past years. Read more here
☕ BUY US A COFFEE
From dirty lobbies to smear campaigns, billionaire bullies to climate collapse, we face a lot. Support our work, one coffee at a time.
📢 ORGANISE
If you are not involved, get involved. Find a member organisation near you.
🚀 FOLLOW US
Don’t stay delulu, deal with the pollulu 🍃✨ Stay connected with us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Don’t miss out!
Are you a journalist? Subscribe here to stay up to date on our latest European environmental policy updates made specifically for you!
We have opened a new mailbox for your tips and tales from the ground. Got something you think we should feature? Reach out to us at newleaf@eeb.org.
✨ SIGN UP
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By: Ben Snelson. Special thanks to the EEB’s editorial team: Roi Gomez, Alberto Vela and Ruby Silk. Editor: Christian Skrivervik.
Dear reader
We’re still pulling no punches, and we’re as determined as ever. This week brought developments that everyone should know about. Democracy, the foundation of civic freedom and our life in Europe, is under increasingly violent assault. With each passing day, the shameless calls to dismantle the rules that protect us and our natural world continue. Those leading this charge would like to silence us. But our resistance and collective resolve are growing louder. Now is the time to get firmly behind the movement to defend life as we know it. Here’s how you can help. As ever, there’s some good news too! We hope you enjoy the read.
💗 But first, an important announcement from our editorial team 💗
For two years, every week we have brought you the freshest updates on European environmental policy, completely free. We do it because an informed community is powerful. But now we need your help. From dirty lobbies, smear campaigns and billionaire bullies to the collapse of climate and nature, we are facing a lot. Winter break is around the corner, and our one wish in our letter to Santa is to keep fighting for what we love. Help us make it happen by becoming an EEB supporter.
🪓 NATURE AND HEALTH UNDER SIEGE
EU wields axe over vital protections – This week, the EU Commission published its ‘Environmental Omnibus’ (translation: its calculated plan to gut multiple EU environmental protection laws through a rushed, opaque, and undemocratic process, in violation of its own rules of procedure). Our analysis.
Not a set of isolated technical tweaks. The EU Commission’s latest plans risk a surge in industrial pollution and toxic exposure. By weakening the Industrial Emissions Directive and scrapping the SCIP (chemicals monitoring) database – key tools for tracking harmful substances – the EU would open the floodgates to more industrial pollution and less oversight to control it.
We’re talking about core environmental protections. The announced review of the Water Framework Directive (to favour harmful industries such as mining) threatens already fragile freshwater ecosystems, increasing health risks and weakening natural defences against climate impacts. Meanwhile, a “stress test” for the Birds & Habitats Directive is out of touch with the reality of Europe’s biodiversity crisis.
At a time when healthy ecosystems are essential for climate resilience, these moves would prioritise short-term industry demands over the long-term wellbeing of people and nature.
These attacks reflect a broader pattern: weakening the EU Deforestation Regulation, scaling back protections against hazardous chemicals and pesticides, creating new avenues for pollution, and jeopardising accountability for polluters. In doing so, this agenda reaches beyond environmental matters and corrodes democracy itself.
Our position leaves no doubt: this aggressive dismantling of vital protections will serve to sideline people and nature, instead favouring a handful of big business interests hellbent on boosting profit margins at any cost.
How would this affect me? If the Commission succeeds in ramming through this agenda of destruction, the effects could be catastrophic for Europe’s ecosystems and wildlife – and directly, also for us. Air will become increasingly unbreathable. Our waters would become too toxic to bathe in or fish in. The sound of country birdsong – a fading memory. The serenity of a forest – gone.
We stand united with our members, partners, and citizens across Europe and beyond to resist this reckless and short-sighted move.
“The Commission is breaking its own rules to tear up the laws that keep us safe. This is not simplification, it is self-sabotage. It puts our health and environment at risk, weakens Europe’s competitiveness and creates chaos for businesses who rely on legal certainty. Who exactly are they doing this for?” said Faustine Bas-Defossez, Policy Director, EEB
✊ UNITED IN OPPOSITION
Against nature. The EU’s own body, the European Environment Agency, published a sobering report this year on the state of Europe’s environment. In summary, we’re wildly off-track: “The outlook for most environmental trends is concerning and poses major risks to Europe’s economic prosperity, security and quality of life.”
Against people’s will. The EU’s Hands Off Nature campaign, in the space of just ten days, gathered the voices of nearly 200,000 people – scientists, civil society, concerned citizens – who care about nature and will not stand by as EU institutions and Member States oversee its destruction. See the Hands Off Nature reaction.
Against the law. Last week, the EU’s Ombudswoman found the Commission’s “omnibus” packages impossible to justify. She made it clear: the Commission is ignoring its own Better Regulation internal guidelines, sidestepping transparency and due process by deliberately squeezing “consultation” processes into a 24-hour window over a weekend, and labelling whatever it wants as an “urgent” measure to justify the unjustifiable. The verdict: “maladministration”.
Against businesses. Calls from businesses are growing louder: business stability and investor confidence need regulation and clarity. Most EU businesses favour strong sustainability standards. Yet the current orchestrated chaos of deregulation – the shredding of rules that keep the Union united, coherent and powerful – does nothing but cripple the EU’s competitiveness, both internally and globally. A divided Europe is a dream for external forces who’d rather we played by their ‘rules’.
🙅 A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF TOXIC PESTICIDES? NO THANKS
Not a conspiracy theory. One of the most alarming examples of these protections not just being weakened but hastily ripped away is the Commission’s proposal to remove virtually all conditions on the use of toxic (to be clear, deadly) pesticides in Europe.
Regulation = protection. These substances are regulated for one reason: to protect people’s health and nature from being exposed to their toxic and deadly effects. They are known to be at the root of multiple diseases, from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to fertility issues and neurological disorders. And that’s not even considering the harm they do to ecosystems.
Here’s how we fight back. We urgently need you to mobilise. On 16 December, the EU Commission will present its final plan before talks with Member States and Parliament – there’s still time to act. Raise your voice for safe food and nature free from toxic pesticides!
👖 FRANCE’S FAST-FASHION LAW: CIRCULAR ECONOMY BATTLES
Get this in Vogue. Sixty-six civil society organisations are urging the Commission to support a new French law designed to curb the most harmful overproduction practices in the fashion industry. With clothing sales soaring across Europe, more garments than ever are being discarded – piling huge pressure on ecosystems while driving textile collectors and sorters to breaking point.
Making rules to protect a la mode again. The updated Waste Framework Directive (WFD) requires EU countries to create “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR) schemes for producers. France wants to go further by using EPR fees to penalise business practices that drive overproduction in the fashion industry. However, the Commission has questioned whether France’s draft law fully aligns with the WFD…
“Walk the Talk”. Our position is clear: the Commission must match its words with action: EPR schemes should provide real incentives for brands to change. With low-value fashion items flooding global second-hand markets, Europe must act now to stem the tide of waste.
Spinning greenwash. If your clothes are made of recycled polyester, they are not as green as they sound… Our members at Changing Markets Foundation tested 51 garments from five major brands for microfibre shedding. Recycled polyester sheds MORE microfibres than virgin polyester when washed – “a sustainability fig leaf covering fashion’s deepening dependence on synthetic materials.” See which brands and the results. Fast fashion is not sustainable – thrift!
🗞️ IN OTHER NEWS ️
UN environmental negotiations. The world’s highest decision-making body on the environment met this week in Nairobi. With the US absent from the table, the EEB was there, helping bring together hundreds of organisations from across the globe to channel input into what proved to be very difficult negotiations – including on the mining of metals and minerals, and on under-appreciated ecosystems such as glaciers, karst and cave systems that are vital to water supplies worldwide. Progress was slow, but as negotiations closed, some key successes were achieved. We’ll dig deeper into what happened in next week’s edition. Stay tuned!
Time to tax the super-rich. This week, as the EU Parliament debated taxing the super-rich, the EEB joined civil society groups vividly highlighting the absurd and dangerous scale of inequality in Europe. Their message was clear: extreme wealth concentration isn’t just unfair, it’s destabilising our societies and eroding the foundations of democracy. The call for a fairer, more balanced system is growing louder. Time for policymakers to listen.
What’s happening with cars? Last night, EU lawmakers struck a deal to overhaul car design and end-of-life rules, merging outdated directives into a new circularity regulation. The package adds tools like a Circularity Vehicle Passport and EU-wide producer responsibility; however, last-minute concessions to industry weakened targets and delayed vital safeguards. These are delays that climate and people’s health can’t afford. See our joint reaction.
🧠✨ DOPAMINE HIT
As ever, here are a few happy updates to get your weekend off to a perky start:
- ICARUS’ Wildlife Tracking System to Resume Operations after Launching to Orbit. Read more here
- Kakapos, the world’s only flightless parrot, have enjoyed their most productive breeding season since 1977. Read more here
- A new study finds that regreening cities could help save 1.1 million lives in 2 decades. Read more
- Nearly 3x more encounters with Sumatran Tigers with camera trap photos than in past years. Read more here
☕ BUY US A COFFEE
From dirty lobbies to smear campaigns, billionaire bullies to climate collapse, we face a lot. Support our work, one coffee at a time.
📢 ORGANISE
If you are not involved, get involved. Find a member organisation near you.
🚀 FOLLOW US
Don’t stay delulu, deal with the pollulu 🍃✨ Stay connected with us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Don’t miss out!
Are you a journalist? Subscribe here to stay up to date on our latest European environmental policy updates made specifically for you!
We have opened a new mailbox for your tips and tales from the ground. Got something you think we should feature? Reach out to us at newleaf@eeb.org.
