Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell is among five big energy companies which have spent a combined €250m on lobbying the European Union in an effort to influence policy, according to Brussels-based research group Corporate Europe Observatory.

‘Since 2010, just five oil and gas corporations and their fossil fuel lobby groups have spent at least a quarter of a billion euros buying influence at the heart of European decision-making,’ the organisation said on Thursday.

‘We need a firewall that protects our democratic institutions and our political decision-making from fossil fuel industry interference,’ the organisation said. ‘No more private lobby meetings, partnerships, or collaboration.’

Shell, BP, Chevron, Total and ExxonMobile lobbyists have held 327 meetings with EU officials over the 10 year period, including 13 with Frans Timmermans or members of his ‘Better Regulation’ task force. This, the researchers say, is more than one meeting a week.

In total, the oil giants have some 200 lobbyists working on their behalf in Brussels.