Since the European Parliament’s new mandate began in June 2024, lobbying on defence-related issues has surged in Brussels — or at least that’s the picture painted by the latest figures collected by Transparency International (TI) EU.
From June 2024 to 17 June 2025, lobbyists ranging from consultancy groups to trade associations and defence firms have arranged a total of 197 meetings — a sharp increase compared to just 78 recorded over the entire previous five-year period.
“Defence has now become a priority for the European Union, which automatically means that there will be a lot of lobbying on this issue, both within the EU Commission and, most certainly, within the European Parliament,” Raphaël Kergueno, TI’s senior policy officer, told Euronews.
German MEPs were the most engaged in defence talks over the past year, with an outstanding 55 meetings. Bulgaria came second with 19, followed by Spain with 15, Finland with 10, Italy and Denmark with 9 each, the Czech Republic with 7, and Poland and Latvia with 6.
Some interest groups have also shown a stronger presence in the Parliament than others – in some cases driven by a substantial increase in their lobbying budgets.
For example, RTX, the US aerospace and defence manufacturer, has scheduled ten meetings with members of the industry and security and defence committees to discuss the future of European defence, the implementation of the European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS), and building a strong European defence sector.
Another notable increase in meetings with EU policymakers in the Parliament comes from the Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), which so far has held twelve meetings with MEPs — up from just two during the previous mandate.
ASD represents 23 national associations and 26 major European companies, including top players such as Airbus, Leonardo, Thales, and Rheinmetall. In 2023, the association employed nine part-time lobbyists and spent between €300,000 and €399,999 lobbying the EU institutions, according to the latest available figures in the EU Transparency Register.
Other major defence firms have followed a similar trend: Airbus held six meetings over the past year (+4 from the previous mandate); the pan-European missile maker MBDA — whose parent companies are Leonardo and Airbus — had five (+5); and Fincantieri held four (+4).
Following Russia’s war of aggression to Ukraine, the EU has urged its member states to step up defence spending and urgently address critical military gaps. EU plans such as the European Defence Industrial Production (EDIP) and the €800bn ‘Defence Readiness 2030’ also aim to boost European production — creating strong incentives for these firms and associations to become more involved in Brussels policymaking.
The bloc’s pivot towards security and defence is also reflected in the lobbying budgets of major defence firms.
The EU’s top seven defence companies — Airbus, Leonardo, Thales, Rheinmetall, Naval Group, Saab, and Safran — collectively spent up to €5.5 million in 2023, marking a 34% increase from the previous year.
Airbus alone nearly spent two million euros on influencing the EU institutions in 2023, with twelve lobbyists on the payroll, and 85 high-level commission meetings held since January 2023 to date.
Yet these figures may not tell the whole story, warns Transparency International.
“All MEPs have to publish their lobby meetings, but when they don’t do so, usually there are no sanctions or consequences, so it really comes down to the rules inside the European Parliament to make sure that everybody follows them and publishes these meetings,” argued Kergueno.
In September 2023, the Parliament updated its rules to expand transparency requirements to all MEPs and their assistants, requiring them to publish every scheduled meeting with lobbyists. But this creates a loophole for meetings that take place informally.
“It is possible that some lobby meetings are not being disclosed proactively, but that’s more to do with the rules applicable to MEPs than with the companies themselves,” Kergueno said.
90 MEPs — mostly from the far-right European Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, the non-attached, and the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) — have not yet declared a single meeting since the beginning of their mandate in June last year.
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