EU Omnibus – simplification of sustainability rules

On 26 February 2025 the EU published an ‘Omnibus Simplification Package’ to address the sustainability related business burden and support growth.

EU Omnibus media release

The media release starts as follows:

The European Commission has adopted a new package of proposals to simplify EU rules, boost competitiveness, and unlock additional investment capacity. This is a major step forward in creating a more favourable business environment to help EU companies grow, innovate, and create quality jobs.

By bringing our competitiveness and climate goals together, we are creating the conditions for EU businesses to thrive, attract investment, achieve our shared goals – such as the European Green Deal objectives – and unlock our full economic potential.

The Commission has a clear target to deliver an unprecedented simplification effort, by achieving at least 25% reduction in administrative burdens, and at least 35% for SMEs until the end of this mandate. These first ‘Omnibus’ packages, bringing together proposals in a number of related legislative fields, cover a far-reaching simplification in the fields of sustainable finance reporting, sustainability due diligence, EU Taxonomy, carbon border adjustment mechanism, and European investment programmes.

Read more.

See full package of measures here.

https://finance.ec.europa.eu/publications/commission-simplifies-rules-sustainability-and-eu-investments-delivering-over-eu6-billion_en?prefLang=cs

An opinion – some early thoughts

Since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed nearly ten years ago there has been a realisation that it is vital governments, investors and business work together to address climate change and other  sustainability challenges.

Since then we have gone from almost a standing start to an immense range of often complex reporting requirements, including a great deal of ‘measurement’ in order to facilitate better ‘management’.

So, whilst we are not expert in EU regulation, in principle we welcome the reporting burden being reviewed and reduced.

Our hope would be that this frees up resources (and investee/ investor ‘bandwidth’) to focus more clearly on the key issues that will enable the EU to successfully achieve net zero, and move towards a more circular economy.