U.S. oil and gas giant ExxonMobil has narrowly escaped losing special access rights to the European Parliament.

Senior members of the European Parliament rejected a demand from the assembly's largest political groups to withdraw special access badges for ExxonMobil staff, after the energy company refused to send representatives to answer lawmakers' questions about claims it knowingly misled the public on climate change.

The senior members, known as quaestors, said in an email that they determined unanimously that the parliament's administration had failed to send ExxonMobil a formal invitation to appear before the hearing, so the legal requirements for withdrawing the badges had not been met. "Therefore no action could be taken," they said.

Asked to comment on the ruling, an ExxonMobil spokesperson said the firm had "not received any formal notification of any decision, and so we're unable to comment at this time".

The call to remove ExxonMobil's passes was led by Green lawmakers with support from centre-right, centre-left, liberal and left-wing members.

"I'm deeply disappointed that ExxonMobil will continue to have the right to haunt the corridors of the parliament, spreading [its] disinformation about climate change and blocking the action we need to take to protect the planet for future generations," Molly Scott Cato, a Green lawmaker from the U.K., said in a statement. "If we want a real democracy in Europe, the parliament needs to show that it is serious when it organises public hearings on important issues – especially on issues as important as climate [change] denialism."

Corporations, trade associations and other lobbyists registered with the European Parliament are entitled to special badges that give them easy access to the assembly's buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg, France.

Losing the badges would make it harder for lobbyists to influence European lawmakers because they would have to go through lengthy procedures to enter parliament's premises. For example, they would have to be signed in by a member of a lawmaker's private office each time.

Representatives of ExxonMobil were asked to appear before a joint hearing of the Parliament's environment, health and food safety and petitions committee on climate change denial that took place on March 21.

In 2017, the parliament removed access badges from agrochemical company Monsanto – which has since been acquired by Germany's Bayer – after the company refused to send representatives to a hearing on whether it had influenced scientific advice on the health risks of its RoundUp pesticide.