Dataharvest 2025 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

The new European Commission's focus for the next five years will be on boosting industry's "competitiveness". This entails a radical deregulation agenda for rules that industry perceives as burdensome. Von der Leyen's deregulation agenda was heavily inspired by corporate lobbying campaigns. Last year, the chemical industry led on the Antwerp Declaration, a wish list of industry to slash regulations. This is now followed by the 'Clean Industrial Deal' which is pushing fossil gas for hydrogen, and ignores the other planetary crisis: pollution and biodiversity decline. CEO has compiled an initial list of more than 15 different tools for systemic deregulation. These create more hurdles for new progressive EU regulation, and create escape routes allowing companies to avoid regulation, as well as new hurdles for national level regulation. A good example are the Omnibus proposals, the first of which diluted sustainability reporting rules that had only recently been agreed. We'll share our insights on these new developments in the deregulation agenda, assess what's at stake, and how to build stories around them, at the European level and in your country.