Rolling back and rolling over to protect profits

With competitiveness a central theme of this Commission’s mandate, business groups are wasting no time in seeking to spin competition into safeguarding corporate profits.

In a newly published set of recommendations, Europe’s largest business lobby outlines 68 areas where legislation – rubber stamped by national governments and elected MEPs – should be re-written to suit the needs of their members.

Included in this groundbreaking document are slashes to critical environmental legislation, the removal of measures to improve the rights afforded to consumers, erosion of due diligence texts that aim to end exploitative practices in supply chains, rolling back on initiatives that seek to have them report and pay adequate taxation, and diminishing safeguards for workers health, safety and fair remuneration in the workplace.

Incredibly, this is done in a manner that equates competitiveness with societal benefit.

All of this comes against the backdrop of increased inequality throughout EU Member States, with recent Oxfam reporting showing that billionaire wealth grew by €138 billion in the last year – equivalent to an increase of €376 million a day in the bloc (globally, billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion in 2024, equivalent to roughly $5.7 billion a day, at a rate three times faster than the year before).

While business groups clearly struggle to get by, figures from 2019 show that nearly 10% of Europeans experience in-work poverty, with precariousness and bogus self-employment also hampering millions of workers.

From the Commission’s side, suppressing red tape for businesses and questionable language surrounding defence and migration should not negatively impact those living and working in Europe, and we remind the groups that corporate profits do not equate to prosperity.

As a recognised social partner, we are happy to discuss with business groups where improvements can be made, but slashing legislation to boost profits is not the answer.

As the representative of European professionals and managers, we are also in an excellent position to determine if reporting is more burdensome than supply chain malpractice, pay inequality or greenwashing.

Gaps exist in skills, staff shortages remain problematic, and our geo-political landscape are all issues that require sensible approaches, recognising that we live in a society, not an economy, and that Europe does not need to become America-lite in regards to deregulation.

Europe is facing a number of major challenges. Corporations making record profits is certainly not one.