Author: Michael Nicholson
In her first term as President of the Commission (2019-2024), Ursula von der Leyen’s flagship European Green Deal policy resulted in a significant number of environment and climate measures being passed. Von der Leyen’s second term as Commission President (2024-2029) is characterised however by a change of tone with an emphasis on industrial competitiveness including regulatory simplification and reducing administrative burdens. To some this threatens and undercuts the EGD policy (see commentary for example from CAN Europe) but to the European Commission it is a direct response to Mario Draghi’s report on the future of European competitiveness, which underscored the importance of transitioning to a low-carbon, resource-efficient and circular economy to ensure the EU’s long-term prosperity.
To achieve this, the Von der Leyen’s second term mandate has featured a controversial programme of simplification initiatives, often known as ‘Omnibus packages’.
The European Commission’s 2025 work programme presented the first set of Omnibus proposals, meant to contribute to achieving the goal of reducing administrative burdens by at least 25% for all businesses, and by at least 35% for SMEs. The European Commission estimates that the combination of these simplification initiatives will reduce recurrent administrative costs in the EU by €11.9 billion.
The ten omnibus “packages” that have been put forward by the Commission to date cut across a vast array of policy areas. Two packages explicitly target sustainability and environmental regulations: Omnibus I covers sustainability reporting/due diligence and EU Taxonomy, as well as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), and Omnibus VIII is focused on simplifying EU environmental legislation. However, sustainability considerations are embedded across several other proposals, notably those concerning agriculture and food, chemicals and automotive regulation, where simplification affects rules originally adopted under the European Green Deal.
This tracker, updated quarterly, monitors omnibus packages relevant to sustainability and environmental regulations, providing a summary of their key elements.
Photo by Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash