The European Union must no longer be a continent where business has it tough. This is an observation shared by all stakeholders, and the Commission wants to take things in hand to achieve this. On Wednesday 29 January, it presented its ‘Competitiveness Compass’, outlining the actions it plans to take from this year onwards. These include a series of ‘omnibus’ packages aimed at simplifying existing legislation, rather than a single ‘omnibus’ initiative, as the Commission had suggested in a draft communication (see EUROPE 13565/1).
The debate within the College on the scope of the ‘omnibus’ seems to have been settled: in late February, the Commission is expected to start with a package covering three pieces of legislation in the first instance: the directive on corporate sustainability reporting (CRSD), the directive on due diligence and the regulation on the European taxonomy. Other ‘omnibus’ packages may be proposed at a later date to deal with additional legislation and the administrative burden it entails, possibly by sector.
“Our goal is that, by the end of the mandate, we will have made proposals that could save businesses over €37 billion a year”, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the press on Wednesday 29 January.
Accused by some civil society organisations and political groups in the European Parliament of wanting to “deregulate” and add uncertainty, Ursula von der Leyen attempted to reassure: “No, we are not undermining the objectives of predictability for businesses, but we must reduce complexities”.
According to one European source, the need to simplify very recently adopted texts can be explained as follows: “When we legislate for the first time, there is a tendency to give a lot of importance to the principle of integrity of the regulation, and also to the precautionary principle. Once the text has been put into context, you can see that there are simpler ways of achieving the same result”.
As part of its simplification drive, the European Commission also wants to tackle the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Although it is not included in the first ‘omnibus’ package, it does appear in the ‘Compass’: “The Commission is also preparing a simplification of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism for small market players”. However, this action is not part of the planned review of the CBAM, which is due to start in 2025, according to a European official.
‘Clean Industrial Deal’. The first ‘omnibus’ proposal is expected at the same time as the ‘Clean Industrial Deal’. According to the European Commissioner for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, this will include action plans that are more akin to business acts. It will not so much be a question of regulations, but of support for the various sectors, which will be drawn up in consultation with them, the Commissioner explained to Agence Europe.
Also in this context, the European Commission also intends to present a ‘Decarbonisation Accelerator Act’ later in 2025, to continue its support for innovative and strategic industrial projects. Asked by Agence Europe about the added value of this initiative compared to the existing regulation for clean industry (‘NZIA’), the President of the European Commission replied that the NZIA “was very focused on cleantech. Now we’re broadening the scope, taking a wider approach to something that has been successful”.
Once again, this will involve speeding up authorisation procedures for new projects and facilitating access to finance.
See the communication on the competitiveness ‘Compass’: https://aeur.eu/f/f9z (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)