On 10 December 2025, the Commission published its Environmental Omnibus, a comprehensive package designed to simplify certain administrative and compliance requirements of environmental legislation.
The package includes a Commission Communication and six legislative proposals aiming to amend provisions of 12 existing environmental laws. Broadly, the targeted legislative proposals seek to:
Alleviate the administrative burden stemming from industrial emission reporting obligations;
Accelerate permitting procedures by changing rules applicable to environmental impact assessments;
Reduce administrative costs by amending Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) provisions across multiple legislative acts; and
Increase clarity and reduce compliance burden through specific technical amendments to individual pieces of environmental legislation.
This blog outlines the package’s key proposals and discusses next steps.
First wave of EPR simplification
The Commission's Single Market Strategy published in May 2025 found that the lack of uniform EPR scheme implementation across the EU Single Market, coupled with associated administrative burdens, was a “real hurdle to going European”. The Environmental Omnibus proposes the following steps to simplify the EPR scheme:
Suspend the obligation to appoint an authorised representative to handle their EPR compliance obligations under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the EU Batteries Regulation (EUBR), the Waste Framework Directive, the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), and the Single Use Plastics Directive until January 2035.
Amend the EPR framework provision in the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) to harmonise the frequency for reporting of data on products made available on the market and related collection and treatment of waste by introducing a maximum reporting frequency of once every 12 months.
Note that this is only the first wave of changes to EPR provisions. As part of the Circular Economy Act, scheduled for Q3 2026, the Commission plans a large scale EPR reform. This will further address harmonisation and digitalisation of EPR schemes, including by establishing a single EU-wide central digital platform as a one-stop-shop for information, registration and reporting with respect to EPR.
Additionally, and in a separate legislative procedure, the Commission has announced to introduce a harmonised format for producer registration under the Waste Framework Directive.
Further amendments to the EU Batteries Regulation
In addition to the delay to the appointment of authorised representatives noted above, the Environmental Omnibus also introduces the following technical amendments to the EU Batteries Regulation:
Clarify the definition of producer for manufacturers, importers, and distributors to confirm application irrespective of the sales technique;
Add a definition for “substances of very high concern” to clarify labelling requirements; and
Exclude battery packs used for means of light transport, e.g., batteries used for e-bikes or e-scooters from removability and replaceability requirements.
In total, there are now four separate proposals in the legislative pipeline to amend the EU Batteries Regulation: two separate proposals under the Environmental Omnibus and two proposals as part of the Single Market Omnibus package published on 21 May.
Acceleration of permitting procedures
As part of the Environmental Omnibus, the Commission also proposes a Regulation to accelerate permitting processes by changing rules applicable to environmental impact assessments across different pieces of legislation. The proposed measures include:
Introducing single points of contact at the nationally competent supervisory authorities to facilitate and coordinate all aspects of environmental assessments,
Allowing Member States to provide for certain procedural simplification with respect to “strategic projects”, such as renewable energy, electricity grids, storage and charging infrastructure, data centres, AI factories, circular economy projects, industry decarbonisation, and port infrastructure. This includes (i) confirming that such strategic projects have an overriding public interest, (ii) providing for tacit approval of intermediary administrative steps under limited conditions, and (iii) using expediated procedures for dispute resolution, and
Proposals to streamline procedures
Note that the Commission has also announced further measures to accelerate permitting in the European Grids Package, and that additional proposals are expected under the Industrial Accelerator Act scheduled for January 2026.
Facilitate industrial reporting
To reduce administrative burden, the Commission proposes key simplifications to industrial emissions legislation. Under the new proposals, companies can establish environmental management systems at company level rather than for each installation, with a longer preparation timeline and less onerous content requirements. The obligation for independent auditing would be repealed, and the requirement to prepare transformation plans removed.
Next steps for the Environmental Omnibus
Each of the six legislative proposals will now undergo the ordinary legislative procedure, including involvement of the Parliament and the Council.
In the Council, the proposals will be dealt with by the “Antici Group. This group was established within the Council in early 2025 to deal with and fast-track the Commission’s simplification proposals and is composed of Member States’ diplomats rather than technical experts.
Within the Parliament there is no Committee specifically working on the simplification agenda. Instead, depending on the policy area and the nature of the proposed amendments, the proposals will be allocated to the responsible committees. Obvious candidates for dealing with the different proposal under the Environmental Omnibus are the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), and the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).
Due to divergency of the proposals, the timeline for the adoption of these proposals is likely to vary. Technical proposals may be adopted within a few months while more substantive proposals, such as for the acceleration of permitting procedures, may take 12 to 18 months. The pace will also depend on the speed of the Parliament which, due to complexity of some Omnibus proposals has, in the past, struggled to rapidly allocate dossiers to Committees.
Beyond these legislative changes, the Commission will also continue simplifying legislation through additional guidance and targeted implementation at the Member State level. Moreover, the Commission made clear that simplification “does not end with the eighth omnibus” and already pointed to future initiatives that will further simplify environmental legislation. These include, among others, the revision of REACH, the Circular Economy Act, the Water Framework Directive and the Single Use Plastics Directive.
/Passle/581a17a93d947604e43db2f0/MediaLibrary/Images/2025-10-21-10-30-43-502-68f760d3a94b3b874acc7f85.png)
