Hundreds of marchers and supporters filled Brussels’ EU quarter yesterday after a 3-day, 60 km protest walk from Maastricht. The “Back to the Future” march brought together affected communities, trade unions, NGOs, and political leaders demanding an end to the EU’s deregulation wave, which puts workers, the environment and human rights at risk.
Deregulation threatens rights and protections
Hard-won rights rights are under threat as the European Commission pushes to slash environmental and social rules in rushed, top-down procedures. Concerned politicians and citizens – including Dutch MEP Lara Wolters, UN rapporteur Olivier de Schutter, and human rights lawyer Steve Bilko (Leigh Day) – have walked alongside affected communities, NGOs, and trade unions with a clear message for Commission President von der Leyen: drop the deregulation agenda and protect rules that hold companies accountable.
Zia ur Rehman, Pakistani human rights defender and founder of AwazCDS-Pakistan:
“I am marching because I belong to the billions whose lives are disrupted by climate change and flawed models of ‘development’ sold as sustainability. I march to remind Europe that the Global South deserves democracy, human rights, and freedoms; not as charity, but as a right. I march to expose the hypocrisy of governments that back dictators for vested interests. Today I am marching because silence is complicity, and I refuse to be silent.”
Marina Stefanova, Associate dean at Sofia University:
“I am marching in the European #BackToTheFuture march for three reasons. First, because a sustainability-driven agenda is the only meaningful human response to the crises we face today. Second, as a Bulgarian and proud EU citizen, I believe our shared values and actions must prove real. And third, as a professor of corporate sustainability, I want to walk the talk for my children and students. Doing the right thing, for the right reasons, at the right time is the most powerful driver of change, and now in Brussels, we will deliver that message of responsible leadership.”
Thomas Miessen, Trade Union Official at Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond (ACV):
“Workers already pay the heaviest price of insufficient European regulation. When social dumping is not the direct reason for these chains, workers’ rights are directly threatened. The EU Omnibus and 28th regime are not about bureaucracy, but about corporate capture by big lobby groups against better legislation for us all. We must win back precious time, for decent work for all and climate policies at the height of our times.”
From Maastricht to Brussels: why history matters
The march retraced a symbolic route: from Maastricht, where the 1992 treaty gave the EU a stronger social and environmental mandate, to Brussels, the heart of EU decision-making. The Maastricht Treaty for Social Europe designated the environment as an official policy area and it modified the EU’s objectives to include “respecting the environment”, as well as assigning EU responsibility for improving living and working conditions and social protection.
But marchers warn that this progress is now at stake. What started as a supposed simplification of sustainability regulations by President von der Leyen, has become an unprecedented rollback of social and environmental legislation in a sweeping deregulation agenda, under the vague banner of “competitiveness”.[1]
Nele Meyer, director of the European Coalition for Corporate Justice:
“When industry becomes Europe’s fourth power, stronger than Parliament or Council, democracy itself is sidelined. Workers, communities, and climate-hit families are already losing ground to corporate lobbies. Von der Leyen’s call for industry to ‘bring clout to the table’ lays bare a dangerous truth: corporate capture has reached the heart of EU decision-making. And this is not the Europe we want”.
Paul de Clerck, economic justice coordinator at Friends of the Earth Europe:
“What the Commission is doing here is a disgrace. They leave companies, responsible for most climate emissions, off the hook and they block access to court for people that are harmed by European multinationals. Von der Leyen couldn’t give a stronger signal that she prioritises corporate profits over citizens’ well-being”.
Isabelle Schömann, Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC):
“The due diligence laws the Commission wants to weaken are a matter of life and death for people in the supply chains of European multinationals. They are what stand between us and another Rana Plaza disaster. Our laws must put people and the planet before profit: workers are not commodities. Europe’s social market economy was built to respect workers’ rights, not to serve corporate profits”.
Early this year, the European Commission initiated a deregulation wave wiping away recent advances of the just transition in EU policy. The omnibus legislative packages[2] take a chainsaw to the core policies of the Green Deal. These policies are being repealed and muddled in rushed, undemocratic processes under intense pressure from the Commission. Among the losses are emission reductions targets from cars,anti-deforestation policies; sustainable reporting rules; prevention of corporate disasters; the ability of victims of corporate negligence to seek justice in court; fact-checking on greenwashing; the advance of renewable energy; and standards against toxic chemicals such as PFAS … and the list is still developing.
Europe’s global credibility on the line. Marchers stressed that deregulation is not just an internal EU matter. If Europe weakens protections, others will follow; undermining the EU’s role as a global climate and social leader.
This “Back to the Future” march was organised by Friends of the Earth Europe, the European Coalition for Corporate Justice, and the European Trade Union Confederation.
Pictures and videos from the march are available HERE.
Media contacts:
- Yvonne Lemmen, Communications Officer at Friends of the Earth Europe, yvonne.lemmen@foeeurope.org, +31 (0)630488748 [EN, NL]
- Sabela Gonzalez Garcia, Communications Manager at the European Coalition for Corporate Justice, Sabela.Gonzalez.Garcia@corporatejustice.org, +32 (0)484055290 [EN, SP]
