Oil majors intensified their meetings with members of the European Parliament on the topic of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation in July, as lawmakers failed to reach agreement on key provisions of the revised rules.
According to the bloc’s transparency register, five of the seven formal meetings that MEPs disclosed on SFDR 2.0 last month were with oil majors.
Negotiations on Parliament’s position on the regulation have stalled amid disagreements over the contentious issue of Transition fund exclusions.
Parliament’s ECON committee had been scheduled to vote on a compromise for revisions to SFDR before the recess from late July to late August, but this was delayed after MEPs failed to reach an agreement.
The earliest a vote can now take place is September. The regulation must first pass through the ECON committee before heading to a full Parliament vote.
Michalis Hadjipantela, a Cypriot MEP who is part of the Conservative EPP grouping, met with ExxonMobil, Eni and TotalEnergies in early July. Total also met with Jonás Fernández of the liberal Renew grouping and Pascal Canfin, of the socialist S&D group, on separate occasions.
The meetings mark the first intervention by both Eni and Exxon on the topic, but Responsible Investor has previously reported on Total’s push to remove the ban on companies expanding their fossil fuel operations from Transition funds.
MEPs have now disclosed a total of nine meetings with the French major, the most out of any organisation on SFDR reform.
The transparency register does not, however, capture informal and unscheduled meetings that can make up the bulk of lobbying in Brussels.
Aligned activity
Member states have already backed an amendment to current proposals that would allow these companies in to Transition funds so long as they allocate 20 percent of their capital expenditure to economic activities aligned with EU taxonomy.
EPP MEPs are also trying to introduce this stance to Parliament’s negotiating position, with Hadjipantela among the signatories to one amendment to this effect.
In 2025, Total’s taxonomy-aligned capex made up 24 percent of its overall expenditure, compared with Eni’s reported 10.8 percent, while Exxon did not disclose its figure.
Critics of the existing proposals argue that excluding companies expanding their fossil fuel operations could result in withholding capital from companies that are genuinely transitioning.
Supporters, on the other hand, say allowing them in would reduce the credibility of the planned category.