Feb 09

Extinction Rebellion shuts down EU chemical lobby Cefic over climate breakdown and public health disaster

"Their toxic lobbying is poisoning our water, our bodies, and our democracy."

Brussels, 9 February 2026 — Early this morning, [about 100] Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists, supported by Greenpeace Belgium activists, shut down the offices of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), the EU’s most powerful industry lobby. Two days before Cefic organises its third industry summit in Antwerp (1), bringing together big industry CEOs and top EU politicians, notably Commission President von der Leyen, the activists protest against Cefic's central role in dismantling protections for climate, nature and public health. The action is part of a campaign to stop fossil fuel and ecocidal lobbying in the EU.

At 7:30 a.m., the activists, some of them wearing gas masks and suits, blocked the entrances of the Cefic headquarters at Rue Belliard 40 with yellow-and-black hazard tape and large banners declaring the building “closed”. They also renamed the building the ‘Council for Ecocide, Famine and Irreversible Collapse’. The action denounced Cefic’s toxic influence on EU politics, particularly their lobbying to weaken a huge range of protective legislation on climate and nature.(2) [Press spokesperson will update on how the action ends]

Why Cefic?

With an annual declared budget of 45 million euros and 164 corporate lobbyists(3) (the real numbers likely to be higher), Cefic is the single biggest lobby organisation in Brussels, bringing together major chemical and fossil fuel companies like BASF, Bayer, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies (4).

According to XR, ‘Cefic’s only purpose is to enrich the shareholders of major chemical and fossil fuel companies whose business model depends on endless pesticides and fossil fuels, leading global warming to 3 or 4°C. It’s suicidal for the EU institutions to keep listening to their demands. And yet, over the past years, under Cefic’s leadership, these companies have succeeded in a near total corporate take-over of our climate politics.’

The Antwerp Declaration and the deregulation wave

According to the group, Cefic has played a central role in the current deregulation wave: ‘Two years ago, Cefic organized a meeting in Antwerp, with big industry CEOs, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen herself. Here, she signed a declaration, essentially promising these industry heads that from that moment onwards, climate and nature policy would serve their profits, not our future.’

The so-called ‘Antwerp declaration’ promised industry leaders a review of all EU legislation to remove ‘incoherence’ and 'complexity' (5) - euphemisms to describe the full deregulation process currently going on at the EU level. The activists claim that since then, ‘the Commission has given the industry lobby basically everything that it wants from indefinitely authorizing toxic pesticides, to allowing multinational companies to cause destruction to people and nature across the globe with near impunity(6).’

On Wednesday, Cefic organizes the third edition of its annual industry summit in Antwerp. Activist Root characterizes the meeting as 'a performance review, where our supposed political leaders ask big industry CEOs if they implemented their ideas well. The timing of this meeting also makes crystal clear who really governs the EU. One day after attending Cefic's Antwerp summit, von der Leyen will meet with EU heads of state for an 'informal retreat' in Limburg, to put the industry's demands into concrete political plans'.

Water access, public health and agriculture under attack

Connecting to the developing crisis in the agriculture world, activists point out that industrial agriculture — heavily dependent on chemical pesticides and fertilisers promoted by Cefic members — is a major source of water pollution across Europe (7). Exposure to these chemicals is linked to cancers, hormone disruption, neurological damage, and other serious health impacts (8).

Among other groups, the Coalition against Bayer dangers and Cancer Colère, a French group of cancer victims, declared their supports to this morning's action.

Morgane, active with Cancer Colère, explains her commitment: "It was when I discovered I had breast cancer at the age of 34 that I also became aware of the scale of the phenomenon. Contrary to what I believed, it was not a disease like any other... It is indeed an epidemic! France currently has the highest incidence rate: 1,200 cancers are diagnosed every day! That's how many lives are turned upside down! And I also discovered that it was a preventable epidemic... That the lack of clarity of certain politicians in the face of the dangers of pesticides is absurd, that they have chosen to defend private interests that make money from our sick bodies rather than the general interest and public health. So, in the midst of chemotherapy, I took on my role as a citizen by joining the Cancer Colère collective to fight for our right to live in a healthy natural environment that heals us rather than making us sick!"

Who’s next?

This action is part of XR campaign People Over Lobbies against ‘fossil fuel and ecocidal corporate lobbying in Brussels’ – they already organised and action against ASD, the arms lobby (9). XR vows to continue to, in their words, ‘make visible the corporate shadow world that controls our politics’, until the EU institutions ban all ‘fossil fuel and ecocidal lobbying’, similar to the ban on tobacco lobbying. Until then, XR claims, ‘we will take action ourselves against these deadly lobby practices.

Ecocidal lobbies, watch out: you could be next!’