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Lobbying at the EU

Who lobbies the European Union?

403 organisations with their headquarters in Sweden are in the European transparency register. They try to influence European laws and decisions. Since December 2024 they have had 1,019 meetings with the European Commission between them.

What is lobbying? (click to read)
  • Lobbying means trying to influence the decisions of politicians and civil servants: through conversations, studies, letters or events. This is allowed and is done by companies, but also by trade unions, environmental organisations and cities.
  • Anyone who wants to meet the European Commission or the European Parliament must be in the transparency register and state how much money and how many people are spent on it.
  • The amounts are reported by the organisations themselves, in ranges (e.g. "between 1 and 1.25 million euros"). Nobody checks them all.
  • A European federation with its headquarters in Brussels often represents companies from all over Europe. That is why there are so many organisations in Belgium.
  • We do not show self-employed individuals (people).

Organisations

403

Reported lobbying costs per year

€ 44.4 million – € 60.2 million

Of 293 companies, federations and trade unions that report this.

Access badges for the European Parliament

142

Lobbyists who can walk in freely.

Who are they?

  • Companies 166
  • NGOs and citizens’ organisations 86
  • Trade and professional federations 63
  • Trade unions and professional associations 22
  • Other organisations and public institutions 21
  • Universities and colleges 16
  • Think tanks and research institutions 13
  • Consultancies 13
  • Churches and religious or philosophical communities 2
  • Associations of public authorities (e.g. cities and regions) 1

Biggest lobbying budgets

What they report themselves for lobbying work at the EU, per year.

  1. Human Bridge Stiftelse NGOs and citizens’ organisations € 9 million – € 10 million
  2. Stockholm Region Assocation for European Affairs (Stockholm Region EU Office) Other organisations and public institutions € 1 million – € 1.3 million
  3. Svenska Artisters och Musikers Intresseorganisation, SAMI ek. för. NGOs and citizens’ organisations € 1 million – € 1.3 million
  4. Spotify Companies € 900,000 – € 1 million
  5. Jernkontoret Trade and professional federations € 900,000 – € 1 million
  6. Sveriges Bussföretag Trade and professional federations € 900,000 – € 1 million
  7. Swedavia AB Companies € 900,000 – € 1 million
  8. NASDAQ Companies € 800,000 – € 900,000
  9. Saab AB Companies € 800,000 – € 900,000
  10. Finance Sweden Trade and professional federations € 800,000 – € 900,000

Most meetings with the European Commission

With commissioners, their private offices or directors-general, since December 2024.

  1. Ericsson Companies 60 meetings
  2. Volvo AB Companies 44 meetings
  3. Confederation of Swedish Enterprise Trade and professional federations 43 meetings
  4. Spotify Companies 38 meetings
  5. Swedish Forest Industries Federation Trade and professional federations 36 meetings
  6. Stegra III (formerly Stegra and H2GS AB) Companies 32 meetings
  7. Scania AB (publ) Companies 30 meetings
  8. NASDAQ Companies 29 meetings
  9. Luossavaara Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag Companies 27 meetings
  10. Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund Trade and professional federations 26 meetings

Source: EU transparency register and meetings of the European Commission with interest representatives (European Commission, reuse allowed with credit to the source). Amounts as reported by the organisations themselves.