No Competitiveness Without a Green Transition: Why Strategic Autonomy and the Future of the EU Green Deal Are Inextricably Linked

While it’s only been almost seven years since the EU launched its ambitious European Green Deal framework, it sometimes feels like decades have passed. Wars on multiple fronts, energy crises, political polarisation and fragmentation have all led to a rapidly shifting geopolitical environment that tends to leave the natural environment on the sidelines. In a world of polycrises, can the green transition still be a top priority?

The language of the 2019 and 2024 EU elections revealed a stark contrast: by 2024, the word ‘green’ had been all but erased from manifestos and policy agendas, replaced by a seemingly urgent case for competitiveness and autonomy. Yet there is no possible strategic autonomy without meeting the Green Deal targets. In 2026, the EU still relies on imports for 57% of its energy, 71% of which is oil, petroleum, and natural gas.^[1] As fossil fuel dependency and volatile transatlantic relations come to a head, one must consider that the European Green Deal was a freedom deal all along.

The Good Lobby‘s founder, Professor Alberto Alemanno, was among the first to denounce the Commission’s simplification agenda, notably the first Omnibus packages. After years of negotiations on landmark sustainability rules such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Commission re-opened files once thought to be set in stone and once again opened the floodgates to corporate lobbying. At present, the disparity between meetings held with corporations and civil society has reached an all-time high, leaving many climate activists to wonder: what’s the point?

That’s one reason that The Good Lobby has recently launched its Deregulation Monitor, an open-source tool to provide legal analysis and strategic intelligence to NGOs, advocates, and researchers trying to navigate an increasingly complex legislative landscape. From the sustainable finance legislation covered by Omnibus I to environmental legislation like deforestation and biodiversity in Omnibus VIII, the Deregulation Monitor offers webinars and expert analysis of these simplification packages to decrypt what they mean in practice.

Despite this grim context, planetary boundaries remain more important than ever. Given the current courtship of deregulation, companies now face an important decision: should they pledge to adhere to strict reporting standards, disclosing core environmental, social and governance metrics even if their enterprise is too small to fall within the scope of legislation? If so, why?

Deregulation is said to benefit industry, but this is only partially true. New regulation criteria, even under the banner of simplification, can contradict procedures put in place by industry to remain compliant, frustrating companies who have already spent years adapting their strategies in anticipation of legislation like CSDDD and CSRD.

Despite the number of companies in scope of the revised CSDDD dropping from around 10,000 to just 2,000,^[2] the costs of climate change are mounting, with the extreme heat of summer 2026 costing the EU €180 billion and effectively wiping out the block’s growth.^[3] Now is the moment for the private sector to lead, defending what is right not only for business but for people and the planet. With mandatory reporting weakened, business leaders should ask what their employees, consumers, and shareholders expect of them. The planet hasn’t changed, only the laws have. What would a healthy future look like? How can business leaders ensure that this happens, chasing neither carrot nor stick but a baseline for growth and happiness? Regular, voluntary disclosure of metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and air, water, and soil pollution must be the new normal, not a regulatory punishment.

As fossil fuel prices drive up the cost of living across the continent, and cracks in transatlantic relations widen, there has never been a more important moment to invest in a clean future, one that keeps Europe truly autonomous and competitive for decades to come.