Climate and human rights campaigners filed a complaint against the European Commission on Friday, accusing the EU executive of weakening sustainability laws without first consulting the public about the changes or assessing their impact.
In February, the Commission proposed legal changes it named the "Omnibus" that would exempt thousands of smaller European businesses from EU sustainability reporting rules, and curb obligations for bigger firms to check their supply chains for human rights and environmental problems.
Industries had complained that burdensome EU rules meant European companies could not compete with rivals in China and the U.S., where President Donald Trump is rolling back regulation and imposing tariffs on foreign goods.
In a complaint filed with the European Ombudsman - the EU's independent watchdog, legal charity ClientEarth and seven other campaign groups said the Commission had failed to assess the environmental and social impacts of changing the laws, and that this amounted to maladministration.
They also accused the Commission of consulting industry lobbyists in closed-door meetings before publishing its proposal, while declining to hold a public consultation.
A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"The closed-door approach followed by the Commission, which favoured consulting certain stakeholders over others, also risks fuelling anti-democratic discourses and eroding the trust of EU citizens in the EU institutions," the complaint said.
A meeting invitation list reviewed by Reuters showed the Commission had invited industry lobbies and companies including top oil and gas producers Eni, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies to a closed-door meeting in February on the Omnibus before it was published - but that the invite list also included campaign groups such as the World Wildlife Fund and Human Rights Watch.
The European Ombudsman must now decide whether to open an inquiry into the complaint.
The watchdog does not have enforcement powers, but can use its inquiries to make recommendations to the Commission that could affect future lawmaking, and to increase scrutiny by other EU institutions of the Commission's conduct.
