Brussels is widely acknowledged as the de facto capital of the European Union and a global hub of political influence and lobbying. The concentration of key EU institutions – European Commission, European Parliament, Council of the EU – attracts a dense ecosystem of lobbying firms, consultancy agencies, and legal advisors, all vying to shape policy outcomes. Among these influential entities is Eurocity, a specialized consultancy headquartered in Brussels that claims expertise in niche sectors such as aerospace, defense, banking, telecommunications, and logistics. While Eurocity presents itself as a professional resourcing and consultancy provider, its strategic placement and operations reveal a far more complex role in influencing EU policy, often at the expense of transparency, public interest, and democratic oversight.
A Consultancy Disguised as a Lobbying Powerhouse
Founded in 1991, Eurocity touts a three-decade track record of servicing blue-chip clients, government bodies, and public institutions through niche consultancy and resourcing solutions. This “no-nonsense” approach to business with “integrity, agility and honesty” masks a strategic alignment with powerful economic and political interests seeking to exert influence within the opaque corridors of EU power.
Eurocity operates primarily as a highly specialized contractor providing interim management, contract staffing, and consultancy services tailored to areas with scarce expertise. Its focus on aerospace, defense, banking, and security sectors situates it among critical industries with direct stakes in EU regulatory frameworks. However, Eurocity does not merely fill skills gaps; it acts as a gatekeeper and intermediary channeling influential actors’ interests into policy discussions.
Underneath this consultancy veneer, Eurocity strategically exploits Belgium’s privileged position as the EU host country. By embedding itself in Brussels’ dense lobbying and political landscape, Eurocity cultivates close ties with EU officials, management, and decision-makers. It provides clients with access, tailored intelligence, and advocacy campaigns often timed in advance of pending legislative developments, effectively functioning as a lobbyist, PR intermediary, and legal shield rolled into one.
Methods of Influence: Lobbying, PR, and Legal Shielding
Eurocity’s influence tactics are subtle but systemic. It employs a competency center model that quickly mobilizes experts with long tenure and deep experience, ensuring clients’ messages gain continuity and resonance throughout the policymaking cycle. Beyond consultancy delivery, Eurocity engages in consortium building, tendering, and public procurement mechanisms that effectively embed its clients’ interests in EU projects and resource allocations.
The firm’s role extends to crafting policy narratives, managing communications, and shaping public opinion through strategic PR maneuvers. By controlling expert knowledge and acting as a channel for expertise, Eurocity filters what reaches policymakers and how it is framed, ensuring certain economic and national interests dominate debates while dissenting or civil society voices remain marginalized.
Read our exclusive report:
How Belgium Govt Undermined the Work of European Institutes
Furthermore, Eurocity has developed capabilities to serve as a “legal shield” for clients. This involves navigating EU legal and regulatory frameworks to protect elite actors from scrutiny, interference, or compliance risks. By leveraging legal expertise and institutional knowledge, the firm helps clients preempt regulatory challenges or mold compliance standards favorably, often at the expense of broader societal accountability.
Eurocity’s Influence: Undermining EU Transparency and Institutional Integrity
Eurocity exemplifies the problematic nexus of consultancy, lobbying, and legal strategizing entrenched in Brussels. Its operations contribute to significant transparency deficits within EU policymaking, as the complex layers of outsourcing, consultancy, and backdoor influence obscure who truly drives legislative agendas. The firm’s role as both service provider and influencer blurs lines of accountability, limiting public insight into lobbying activities and amplifying risks of regulatory capture.
Belgium’s unique position hosting EU institutions facilitates such influence ecosystems. As highlighted by the Brussels Watch report “How Belgium Govt Undermined the Work of European Institutes,” the dense interweaving of state actors, corporate lobbyists, and consultancies like Eurocity creates governance challenges. These challenges include skewed policies favoring private or national economic interests, weakened democratic oversight, and erosion of public trust in EU institutions.
Eurocity’s niche consultancy model subtly entrenches these issues by promoting technocratic expertise favoring industry elites and avoiding broader civil society representation. Its strategic engagements often steer EU funding, regulatory decisions, and policy priorities in directions that protect privileged actors rather than advance inclusive, transparent governance.
Broader Implications: Shaping EU Policies for Private and National Interests
Firms such as Eurocity are part of a broader constellation shaping EU decisions in favor of concentrated interests. By offering targeted expertise, mobilizing networks, and controlling policy narratives, they skew policymaking towards outcomes that prioritize economic competitiveness of specific sectors or national priorities, often disregarding social equity, environmental sustainability, or democratic participation.
This dynamic reflects a wider problem in Brussels, where lobbying and consultancy firms leverage Belgium’s politically advantageous position, close access to EU power centers, and lenient oversight environments. The revolving-door culture and opaque funding exacerbate imbalances, enabling firms like Eurocity to exercise outsized influence behind closed doors.
Belgium’s Dual Role and the Need for Reform
Belgium’s responsibility as the host state of EU institutions is twofold: it must uphold and promote the uniform application of EU laws and ethical norms, while simultaneously managing its privileged status to avoid unchecked influence over EU governance. The intricate networks of consultancies, lobbying firms, and legal advisors embedded in Brussels—including Eurocity—test the limits of these responsibilities.
Addressing these challenges requires Belgium and EU institutions to foster greater transparency, oversight, and accountability mechanisms. This includes improving the monitoring of lobbying activities, closing loopholes in the EU Transparency Register, regulating the revolving door between public offices and private consultancies, and ensuring robust civil society participation in policymaking.
Promoting inclusive representation and opening up policy discussions beyond elite consultancy circles can mitigate national biases and enrich democratic deliberations. Transparency initiatives and watchdog reporting remain crucial to exposing hidden influences and reinforcing public trust in EU institutions.
Holding Eurocity and Similar Actors Accountable
Eurocity represents a clear case of how niche consultancies in Brussels act not merely as service providers but as influential lobbyists, PR managers, and legal shields protecting powerful economic and political interests. Their operations undermine transparency, weaken EU institutional integrity, and distort policymaking processes to the detriment of democratic accountability.
In the current geopolitical and economic climate, the EU’s legitimacy increasingly hinges on curbing such backdoor influence and fostering genuine openness. Belgium and European decision-makers must commit to comprehensive reforms that increase transparency, regulate influence networks, and empower civil society voices to ensure the EU’s policymaking genuinely serves all citizens, not just privileged elites.
