How to not make friends but influence people – Mar 19 2026

Hello and welcome to EU Influence! I’m Mari Eccles. This week the Bubble was asking on LinkedIn if we’re seeing the end of acronyms in Brussels after a flurry of rebrands from interest groups (ETRMA recently became Tyres Europe, while ECSA switched to European Shipowners, the Acker Group’s Nicolas Acker points out). As someone who once spent an entire conference coffee break speaking to someone from the European Midwives Association, thinking she was from the European Medicines Agency, I’m all for this new trend.

This week we’re considering:

— The controversial lobbying campaign behind the EU Inc proposal.

— One MEP gets her personal security paid for by a private donor — but won’t say who that is.

— Car lobbyists aren’t limiting their focus to the climate; chemicals and deforestation policy are also in their sights, according to a new report.

LOBBYING 101

EU INC. – THE ANATOMY OF AN EU LOBBYING CAMPAIGN: When Ursula von der Leyen announced in Davos in January that she’d be renaming the forthcoming EU corporate law proposal for startups, it raised eyebrows. Not because the rather dull-sounding “28th regime” didn’t need a rebrand but because the name she picked — EU Inc. — was already being used by a group of lobbyists working on the same topic (and with their own branded merch, including snazzy hats).

Victory lap: “WE MEMED THIS INTO REALITY,” Marvin Baumann, a self-described volunteer campaigner for the lobby group EU Inc., posted on LinkedIn at the time.

Back in Brussels: This week, von der Leyen revealed her version of EU Inc. (officially The 28th Regime Corporate Legal Framework — EU Inc.) — a proposal for a legal framework designed to let entrepreneurs bypass 27 different national systems and incorporate across the bloc in as little as 48 hours.

How did we get here?: They came with laptops and an elevator pitch, competition reporter Jacob Parry writes in. A loose network of startup founders, consultants and lawyers pitched the European Commission on their vision for a startup-friendly EU-wide corporate law regime, intended to give Europe a Silicon Valley ecosystem of its own.

WhatsApp chats: It all started in a WhatsApp chatroom, said EU Inc. co-lead Simon Schaefer, the Lisbon-based head of Allied for Startups. In April 2024, former Italian Prime Minister-turned-Single Market guru Enrico Letta published his report on the dire state of the common market. Schaefer said Letta’s idea for a “28th regime” — allowing startups to more easily operate across the EU’s 27 member countries — struck a chord.

Elevator pitch: Together with Andreas Klinger, an Austrian startup founder who had spent the late 2010s in Silicon Valley, Schaefer and a dozen others launched a WhatsApp “war room” to discuss their idea to make life easier for startups. Schaefer and his peers had long bemoaned the flight of promising companies to the other side of the Atlantic, drawn by abundant venture capital funding and less red tape.

What’s in a name: One of their first tasks was branding. “A lot of people had been saying for ages that we need something like a Delaware Inc. in Europe… so the name [EU Inc.] was just completely natural,” said Klinger, referring to the U.S. state that attracts a vast amount of companies thanks to its business-friendly rules. They now had a snappy name to promote a proposal designed by committee in fall 2024, which quickly drew support from heavyweight European company founders like Stripe’s Patrick Collison, Mistral AI’s Arthur Mensch, and Skype veteran Taavet Hinrikus.

Lobby shop: They took their campaign public with a multi-month barrage of LinkedIn posts. Behind the scenes, they picked up support from law firms and startup associations, with Orrick, Bird & Bird, and Osborne Clarke providing pro bono advice as they crafted a legal framework that could gain political traction.

Bricks and mortars: As their campaign went viral on LinkedIn, a parallel campaign was shaping up in the European Parliament. René Repasi, a German Social Democrat law professor and stalwart of the trade union movement, was tasked with authoring the Parliament’s report. Repasi attempted to come up with a ‘third way’ that would not spook the continent’s unions, who viewed the liberalizing proposal with skepticism, he told Jacob.

Hostile encounters: Repasi’s attempt to draft a compromise repeatedly came under fire on social media. A “LinkedIn shitstorm,” is how he put it, describing EU Inc.’s sharp-elbowed tactics on social media. Their practice of tagging officials who were working on the file did not endear EU Inc. to the Commission departments working on the issue, said a Commission official, granted anonymity to speak freely. As the file became a tug-of-war between Consumer Protection Commissioner Michael McGrath, leading the file, and Startups Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva, whose cabinet lent a sympathetic ear to the lobbyists, tensions mounted.

Online campaign: EU Inc.’s online campaign remained civilised despite its loud volume, said Repasi. “I’m an ECON member,” he said, noting that he was used to the blunt tactics of financial services lobbying. The scale of the lobbying operation, however, was different, he said. “I think many of my colleagues wanted to be liked by them,” said Repasi, who questions how grassroots the campaign actually was, given its ties to law firms and tech corporations. “There was no possibility to argue back with them.”

EU Inc. defence: The EU Inc team pushed back, saying they were never mean-spirited. “I don’t think we were ever mean on LinkedIn,” one founder said.

Parliamentary troubles: As the Commission worked towards a draft, the parliamentary report, which passed with near universal approval, tried to square the circle between the labor movement’s social dumping concerns and the need for startup speed. But startups weren’t happy at what they thought was a lack of ambition. It didn’t help that some in the Parliament didn’t like the Americanised name EU Inc. and preferred the Latin-derived title Societas Europae.

Davos moment: Then came von der Leyen’s announcement at Davos. The name change came as “a complete surprise,” said Schaefer, who was on a Zoom call with other core EU Inc-ers when she made the announcement. It made sense, said Klinger. “Everybody in the Commission constantly had to correct themselves when they were talking. They were supposed to say ‘a pan-European entity using a 28th regime,’ but they always just called it ‘EU Inc.’”

More than a name: But beyond the moniker, is EU Inc (the lobby) happy with EU Inc (the proposal)? “A lot of improvements” but falls short of its vision, Klinger told Jacob (although he added that his organization was still studying the details).

SECURITY DETAIL

WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS MEP’S SECURITY? Alice Teodorescu Måwe is only a first-term MEP but made headlines last year after a scuffle in the Parliament between her and a left-wing staffer over Gaza. Now she’s in the press in her native Sweden over a recent declaration to the European Parliament of “ongoing financial support from a private donor” that funds her “personal security arrangements.” There’s just one issue: she doesn’t say who that private donor is.

Transparency vs privacy: Her office told us that she shouldn’t have to say, as the support provided “complies with the applicable rules” (that’s the MEPs’ code of conduct). The arrangement was also “reviewed and approved” by the Parliament’s relevant teams, her office said, which “also advised that this was the correct way to proceed.” Her national party also knows about the arrangement and considers it to be within the Parliament’s rules, her office continued. Teodorescu is a well-known figure in her home country, where she worked as a political pundit before running for election in Brussels.

Not political: “The support in question does not concern political activities and therefore does not fall under the requirement to disclose the identity of the donor. Instead, it has been declared under ‘any additional information I wish to provide,’” her office told us. “Further details regarding these security arrangements should not be made public, given the nature of the matter, as doing so would undermine the very purpose of the support — namely, to enhance the safety of the Member.”

Not convinced: Bram Vranken, a researcher at the transparency NGO Corporate Europe Observatory, said the declaration “raises a lot of questions.” He asked, “Why does she receive external funding for her private security? And why has she only added this information to her declaration recently?” The declaration is dated Feb. 11.

Call for disclosure: “The identity of third parties providing financial support should be disclosed, as there is a real risk of undue influence on her work as an MEP,” Vranken said.

Not a problem: But the European Parliament press services (which told Influence they wouldn’t comment on individual cases) said: “In accordance with Article 4(2)(f), Members can declare in section G of their declaration any other direct or indirect private interest. This section could cover also private security arrangements, which are not forbidden.”

CAR LOBBY BRANCHES OUT

AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR LOBBIES AGAINST DEFORSTATION AND CHEMICALS REGULATION: Automakers and their EU lobbying group — the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA)— are often the fiercest opponents of climate regulation, particularly emissions standards that impact the type of vehicles that can be sold. But a report out Wednesday, seen ahead of time by POLITICO, shows those lobbying efforts go far beyond climate into regulation on deforestation and limiting the use of chemicals, our Jordyn Dahl writes in to say.

For the love of PFAs: The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is working on a revision to a chemicals regulation that aims to restrict the use of PFAs, dubbed ‘forever chemicals’ because they do not break down over time. ACEA and some of its members are pushing for exemptions and some chemicals not to be included, the report by InfluenceMap found.

This feels random: “What we saw quite clearly was a real target on a very specific part of the PFAs restriction proposal, which is fluoropolymers,” Krishan Prinjha, a biodiversity analyst at InfluenceMap and who wrote the report, told Jordyn. Fluoropolymers are used across automotive components, such as hoses and gaskets, because they can withstand extreme temperatures.

It gets results: The ECHA updated its PFAs proposal in August 2025, putting forward a 13-and-a-half-year exemption for fluoropolymers used in vehicle systems. The pressure hasn’t let up, though. In a position paper published earlier this year, ACEA called for the chemical regulation to remove reporting obligations “unless there is a proven need for human health and environment under consideration of all relevant socioeconomic aspects.”

Land protection: The Commission put forward its controversial deforestation regulation in December, following intense backlash from member countries and right-wing lawmakers. Among those opposing the regulation were automakers over concerns that due diligence requirements would limit the supply of leather for seats and other interior components or rubber for tires, the report says.

LOBBYING BLITZ

FLYING VISIT: Europe’s major airline CEOs are in town today for their annual Brussels conference, organized by lobby group A4E. But only one of the big five airlines that made the visit booked in private face time with commissioners, according to their agendas: Lufthansa’s CEO Carsten Spohr. He met with Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas on Tuesday, and the pair discussed tariffs, travel chaos in the Middle East, air passenger rights and the upcoming aviation strategy, one official with knowledge of the talks told Influence. Spohr also met with Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

TALKING TV: Netflix’s CEO Ted Sarandos was also in town, meeting with Commission Executive Vice Presidents Henna Virkkunen and Teresa Ribera, along with Commissioners Michael McGrath and Glenn Micallef. He also spoke with POLITICO Executive Editor Carrie Budoff Brown, and said Netflix can live with regulation, but warned the EU not to fracture the single market with a patchwork of national mandates, as officials prepare to reopen the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Catch the full interview here.

NGO LOBBYING FIGHT, LIVESTOCK EDITION: Chalk up another win for French center-right MEP Céline Imart, our Bartosz Brzeziński writes in. The lawmaker who blindsided colleagues last year by smuggling a veggie-label crackdown into a seemingly dry reform on farmers’ bargaining power has done it again. During Wednesday’s agriculture committee vote on a non-binding report on the future of the EU livestock sector, Imart slipped in language calling for tighter scrutiny of EU funding for advocacy NGOs. In the Parliament’s procedural labyrinth, even a sleepy livestock report can moonlight as a proxy skirmish in Brussels’ never-ending turf war over who gets to lobby — and with whose money.

Hundreds of diplomats, officials and lobbyists piled into Brussels’ Bozar cultural center on Tuesday night for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration hosted by the Irish perm rep. Guests were treated to Irish dancing, mountains of freshly-shucked oysters flown in from the Emerald Isle, and free-flowing pints of Guinness, Gabriel Gavin writes in. The event kicks off the social calendar for Ireland’s team of envoys ahead of taking over the presidency of the Council of the EU at the end of June.

SPOTTED … at the reception: Former Commissioner Phil Hogan; Ukraine’s Deputy PM Taras Kachka; European Economic and Social Committee President Séamus Boland; EU Military Committee Chair Seán Clancy; Montenegro’s Ambassador Petar Marković; EEAS Secretary-General Belén Martínez Carbonell; Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath; former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar; and MEPs Billy Kelleher, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, Maria Walsh, Nina Carberry, and Regina Doherty.

NOT SPOTTED: Pakistan’s national day reception, scheduled for April 13 and hosted by the embassy of Pakistan in Brussels, has been cancelled. “This decision follows the policy measures enacted by the Government of Pakistan in response to recent developments in the region,” the ambassador’s office said in an email.

CAMPAIGN CORNER

NOT POPPING IN THE BUBBLE: Anyone strolling past the European Parliament on Wednesday got an eyeful thanks to a giant condom erected on the Esplanade.

The stunt came courtesy of global health NGO DSW, which is pushing male contraceptives.

“The weather was in our favor of course — though we were just within the wind limit to have the condom erected,” DSW Brussels office head Lisa Goerlitz told me. “We hope to see more EU decision makers take up the issue and support the development of much-needed — and wanted — novel contraceptives, for all genders.”

NOT ANSWERING: If you read last week’s Influence (and if not, why not?), you’ll remember a Bridgerton-themed stunt in which more than 300 civil society organizations and unions wrote to Ursula von der Leyen inviting her to a meeting ahead of today’s EU summit to discuss the Emissions Trading System. One of the organizers told Influence the Commission president’s cabinet declined the invitation for a sit-down, saying she had “prior commitments on the date in question.”

UNDER PRESSURE: The European Commission has been copping some flak for its presence last week at the first edition of BEDEX, the Brussels European Defence Exhibition & Conference. Amnesty EU’s office called it “unconscionable” that the Commission (as well as the European Defence Agency) was listed as a partner at the event “alongside sponsor @LockheedMartin which proudly contributes to Israel’s arms industry w/ fighter jets used for deadly military operations in the Gaza Strip.”

Playing it down: But Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier talked down the executive’s role, saying it participated “with an information booth as an exhibitor.” He told Influence: “The organiser referred to the Commission as a ‘partner’; however, the Commission’s involvement was limited to presenting its activities through a booth and should not be interpreted as institutional support for the event.”

He added: “Commissioner [Andrius] Kubilius participated in the event following an invitation from the Belgian Minister of Defence, Theo Francken. The Commissioner regularly participates in similar events when invited by national authorities or stakeholders.”

BEYOND BRUSSELS

MAGYAR MEANS BUSINESS: Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar is looking to fill his Cabinet with CEOs rather than political veterans if he wins next month’s election. Max Griera reports that Magyar’s team reckons that regaining access to Hungary’s currently frozen EU funds would require skills familiar to business executives.

GC’S MASS CLAIM: Former employees of Global Counsel’s London office say that they are each thousands of pounds out of pocket after their roles and salaries ended last month, and are preparing a mass claim for lost pay, Dan Bloom and John Johnstone report.

INFLUENCERS

DIPLOMACY

Martina Portelli is heading back to Valletta after more than a decade in Brussels. A former Antici with stints at the EEAS and Commission, she takes up a role as head of external affairs in Malta’s EU Coordination Department, handling European Council coordination and high-level engagement.

The European Union is expected to send one of its top trade lieutenants, Maria Martin-Prat, to Geneva as ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Borderlex reported on Monday. She would take over from João Aguiar Machado as of May.

CONSULTANCIES

Global Counsel’s Emilie Kerstens is starting today as associate director in charge of trade policy at Flint Global.

Owen Morgan joins Rasmussen Global as a communication and media officer. He was previously with Euractiv.

Anna Lisa Schäfer-Gehrau, who was at Global Counsel, has joined Hanbury Strategy as an account director.

David Simon has been promoted to a director of financial services at FTI Consulting. Carolyn Green, also at FTI, has been promoted to a director on the healthcare and life sciences team.

INSTITUTIONS

Alessandro Gallina is starting a new position as a policy assistant at the bioeconomy and food systems unit at the European Commission’s DG RTD. He was previously a senior account manager at Incisive Health.

David Mueller has been named as the director for resources and general affairs within DG TAXUD. He’s currently director at the Commission’s advisory service Inspire, Debate, Engage and Accelerate Action (IDEA).

Eric Thévenard, who currently works as head of unit for trade-related controls, residues and feed safety at DG SANTE, has been appointed the director for health and food audits and analysis at the same DG.

TECH & MEDIA

Henry Wade joins Persona as EU/UK public policy manager. Before he was at Klarna.

Thanks very much to Jacob Parry, Jordyn Dahl, Bartosz Brzeziński, Sonja Rijnen, Gerardo Fortuna, Gabriel Gavin, Jason Wiels, Sarah Wheaton, Camille Gijs, Sebastian Starcevic, Zoya Sheftalovich, my editor Paul Dallison and producer Natália Delgado.

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