EU rush to fix energy crisis risks stripping citizens and nature of legal protections

16 May 2026, 13:03 by https://euobserver.com/author/pascoe-sabido/ · EUobserver

The current energy crisis is rightly motivating leaders but should not be used as an excuse to trample on the rights of people and the environment.

EU politics

EU rush to fix energy crisis risks stripping citizens and nature of legal protections

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By Pascoe Sabido,

European energy ministers were in Cyprus this week discussing how to reduce dependence on the gas that’s currently stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.

On the table was the European Commission’s ‘AccelerateEU‘ proposal, which aims to fast-track renewable energy projects by “streamlining” permitting rules and hastening the shift away from gas.

The renewed push to ditch fossil fuels is long overdue, but thanks to the influence of industry lobby groups, permitting exemptions intended for renewables are being used for new dirty energy projects, such as CO2 pipelines and fossil hydrogen.

Rather than getting off fossil fuels, these will prolong the continent’s reliance on gas, ensuring households and businesses remain exposed to volatile markets and higher prices.

A push to deregulate permitting

The proposal to “streamline” permitting is part of a widespread industry push – fully embraced by the European Commission – to make it easier for companies to get permits to build new infrastructure, such as mines, data centres, pipelines and wind farms.

Justified as making European companies more competitive on the global stage, slashing permitting rules means cutting the hard-won social and environmental protections that are part of them.

The new report from Corporate Europe Observatory, “Permission to Pollute”, shows how industry has demanded – and won – the fast-tracking of permitting rules.

This means sidelining democratic participation, making it harder for communities to resist gas-guzzling data centres or Indigenous rights-infringing mines.

Simpler, quicker environmental assessments mean less protection for our drinking water, endangered wildlife, and at-risk habitats.

The EU is handing some of its most climate- and environment-wrecking industries permission to pollute, while people are being cut out of the process.

Exemptions becoming the norm?

Permitting exemptions for renewable energy first appeared in 2022 with the EU’s plan to phase out Russian gas. New projects were declared of “overriding public interest” and exempted from environmental impact assessments.

This language is now in the Grids Package’s proposal on accelerated permitting, which primarily focuses on renewable electricity – but the European Parliament is currently proposing amendments to make its support for gas, hydrogen and CO2 capture, transport and storage explicit.

The “overriding public interest” language also appears in other European Commission proposals, like ReSourceEU, which wants to fast-track permitting for mining and “simplify” the EU’s water protection law (read: deregulate).

The commission’s Environmental Omnibus, one of ten Omnibus proposals aimed at slashing regulations to make life easier for business, proposes speeding up environmental assessments and restricting access to justice by limiting what arguments can be used in court.

Strategic sectors and projects (including mines, data centres, ports, airports and more) will be presumed to be of “public interest”, and get tacit approval (for example, no news is good news) and fast-tracked dispute settlement.

The recent Industrial Accelerator Act includes “simplified”, accelerated permitting for “energy-intensive decarbonisation projects”, which includes fossil fuel-enabling technologies.

These must be considered “strategic”, along with other sectors prioritised for government-designated “acceleration areas”, where environmental assessments aren’t required at all.

Not good news if you happen to live near one.

But who identifies which projects enjoy these labels?

The commission asked industry itself: president von der Leyen proactively reached out to influential lobby group the European Round Table for Industry (ERT) for its recommendations on deregulation – it asked for “accelerated” and “streamlined” permitting and CO2 pipelines across Europe.

The commission also organised a closed-door workshop with oil and gas lobby group IOGP on permitting, which later stated that the Environmental Omnibus and Grids Package showed “real progress on long-standing asks from industry”.

The commission’s two “targeted” consultations on the Industrial Accelerator Act (known as “reality checks”) were made up entirely of industry.

Tackling one crisis deepens another

Permitting rules, while imperfect, have been a bulwark against developments that threaten public health, natural habitats and the climate.

The commission’s proposed changes, drafted hand-in-hand with industry, will make it even harder for local communities to say no to new motorways, airports, mines, pipelines or mega-wind farms.

This is not what a just transition away from fossil fuels looks like.

The current energy crisis is rightly motivating leaders but should not be used as an excuse to trample on the rights of people and the environment.

Whether it is a new CO2 pipeline being built or a windfarm, those impacted have a legal right to access to justice under the Aarhus Convention.

As leaders in Cyprus try to alleviate one crisis, they are simultaneously deepening another: one of democracy.

People will resist these new projects – they already are – while feelings of disenfranchisement pour fuel on the flames of the far-right and undermine support for the transition.

If we want to accelerate the move away from gas, we need the involvement of impacted communities rather than corporations intent on profit-maximisation.

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