EU: Commission publishes Environmental Omnibus

On 10 December 2025, the European Commission published the Environmental Omnibus containing six legislative proposals to simplify environmental legislation in the areas of industrial emissions, circular economy, environmental assessments and geospatial data (see Commission press release, Communication & draft legislation and Q&A). The aim of the changes is to to reduce administrative burden and cut red tape for businesses while maintaining existing environmental objectives and standards. 

The Commission carried out a call for evidence in July 2025 on what might be included in an Environmental Omnibus but that contained very little detail (see our previous blog post). The Commission says it received 190,000 responses to that call for evidence. The Commission also carried out various roundtables and other stakeholder events to gather feedback.  

The six legislative proposals (which are accompanied by a Communication explaining the changes) contain targeted changes to various pieces of environmental legislation:

Streamlined environmental assessments for granting permits 

• Project developers will benefit from simplified and accelerated procedures for environmental assessments, including single points of contact, digitalisation and faster procedures.
• The proposal applies to environmental assessments falling within the scope of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive, the Water Framework Directive, the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive. 
• The proposal includes a ‘toolbox’ (in the Annex to the proposed Regulation) with additional accelerating measures for strategic sectors and projects that contribute to decarbonisation or resource efficiency.
• The types of strategic projects the Commission hopes will benefit from this proposal include renewable energy, electricity grids, storage projects and recharging stations, data centres and AI factories or gigafactories, circular economy-related projects, decarbonisation of energy intensive industries, and port infrastructure.

Simplified Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) 

• Currently, legislation for batteries, packaging, electronic equipment (WEEE), single use plastic and waste requires EU-based companies to appoint an authorised representative to fulfil obligations related to their extended producer responsibility. Companies must set up this system in every Member State where they are not established and sell products.
• This obligation will be suspended for European producers while further streamlining of the EPR schemes under the forthcoming Circular Economy Act is pending.
• However, companies that have already designated such representatives can continue to do so.

Simplified industrial emissions standards for industry and farmers 

• The Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive (IED) will be simplified for companies, allowing Environmental Management Systems (EMS) to be prepared at the company level rather than per installation.
• The content of EMS will also be simplified, in particular by deleting requirements for chemical inventories and indicative transformation plans.
• The IED and the Medium Combustion Plants Directive will be adjusted to enable permitting of decarbonisation projects using oxy-fuel or hydrogen combustion.
• Compliance deadlines for certain new or revised provisions will be extended.
• Livestock and aquaculture operators will be exempted from reporting on the use of water, energy and raw materials use under the Industrial Emissions Portal Regulation.
• Member States will be able to report more information on behalf of farmers on issues such as off-site transfers of waste and of pollutants in wastewater, on production volume and number of operating hours.
• There will also be targeted simplification on the calculation of the threshold for pig farms, and by removing organic poultry farms from scope of the IED, to avoid duplicative requirements.

More effective digital solutions for hazardous substances in products 

• The Commission proposes to amend the Waste Framework Directive to repeal the  Substances of Concern in Products (SCIP) database, as it says the cost of that database is disproportionately high and that its functions will be replaced with more effective digital solutions such as the Digital Product Passport and implementation of the One Substance One Assessment package.
• The SCIP database was intended, among other things, to inform recyclers about the presence of hazardous substances in products.

Facilitated access to geospatial data 

• The current technical requirements for geospatial data under the INSPIRE Directive will be fully aligned with the horizontal legislation governing public sector high value geospatial data. This simplification will lower compliance costs for public authorities and facilitate access to high value geospatial data sets for all public and private users. 

Next steps 

The six legislative proposals now need to be negotiated by the European Parliament and Council under the “ordinary legislative procedure”, which under normal circumstances tends to take at least 18 months but in this case may happen more quickly.

Other environmental simplifications to come in 2026

In the Communication, the Commission also said it intends to carry out other environmental reviews and simplifications, including:

• The Commission will publish, soon, guidance on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), to deal with the most frequently raised points in the call for evidence and in bilateral exchanges, including testing for PFAS, application dates, labelling requirements and, reuse targets. In addition, a draft Delegated Act will be published for stakeholder feedback, that would provide an exemption for pallet wrappings and straps from the 100% reuse targets. The Commission will consider in its implementing measures additional flexibilities for other packaging formats, notably where hygiene and food safety issues prevent the achievement of those targets. The Commission has also said it will simplify reporting as much as possible via implementing measures to reduce administrative burdens in close collaboration with stakeholders and Member States in the newly established expert group for packaging.
• The Commission will publish a proposal for a Circular Economy Act in Q3 2026 (see our previous blog posts here and here on the circular economy challenges the Commission has identified).
• On the Single Use Plastics Directive, the Commission will complete an evaluation in 2027 to determine if it has met its objectives to reduce (marine) plastic pollution and to improve circularity. The evaluation will fully assess the possibility to reduce administrative burden. A specific call for evidence and a public consultation will be launched in the coming weeks.
• The Commission will review the Water Framework Directive in Q2 2026 and will prepare guidance in Q1 2026 to clarify various issues raised by stakeholders, in particular concerning permitting.
• The Commission will stress-test the Habitats and Birds Directives in 2026.
• The Commission has promised a targeted revision of the REACH chemicals legislation, possibly in Q1 2026.

For more information on other environmental simplifications and Omnibuses, see our Omnibus Tracker.