On Wednesday 12 February, the European Commission presented its communication entitled ‘A simpler and faster Europe’ on the simplification and implementation of policies, at the same time as its work programme for 2025. In it, it sets out the various actions it intends to take to reduce the administrative burden on businesses, improve the implementation of legislation and make the development of its policies more effective.
It describes the objectives of its first ‘omnibus’ initiative, expected at the end of the month, but whose contours are not yet fully defined. For example, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) appears in the section of the Communication dedicated to the ‘omnibus’. According to the European Commissioner for Simplification and Implementation, Valdis Dombrovskis, this regulation should “very probably” be one of them. “It's not 100% decided yet, but CBAM will be on the agenda. The question remains as to whether this will be part of the ‘omnibus’, or in parallel”, he told Agence Europe.
The Commissioner confirmed that the simplification would concern, among other things, the scope of CBAM (see EUROPE 13576/10).
With regard to the other three texts (CSRD, CSDDD and taxonomy), the aim is to ensure “obligations aligned with the needs of investors, reasonable timetables, financial indicators that do not discourage investment in small businesses in transition, and obligations proportionate to the scale of activity of the various businesses”.
Once this first ‘omnibus’ proposal has been published, the Commission will consider two further proposals of the same type. The second will aim to facilitate investment, in particular through the deployment of InvestEU. Finally, a third ‘omnibus’ proposal would create a category of ‘mid-caps’ that could benefit from flexibilities in the rules in the same way as SMEs and would withdraw paper bonds for companies.
The Commission invites the co-legislators to use the fast-track procedure to adopt ‘omnibus’ initiatives, and therefore not to table amendments. It thus hopes that the European Parliament and the Council will not open the door to further changes of substance in the texts covered by the ‘omnibus’ (see other news).
Another proposal to simplify the life of businesses: the Commission intends to extend its target of a 25% reduction in reporting obligations - 35% for SMEs - to cover administrative costs in a broad sense for economic players. This will be monitored and measured with annual progress reports.
Respecting the rules. The Commission intends to use both encouragement and force to ensure that Member States comply with its legislation. It proposes to prepare an implementation strategy for each major new legislative act to support the EU-27, but it also plans to get tough on infringement proceedings.
A pre-action dialogue could be set up to open up the channels and try to find solutions. Secondly, in view of the excessive number of open infringement proceedings (some 1,500 at the beginning of 2025), the Commission wants to close as many as possible, using the EU Court of Justice if necessary.
Policy development. In its document, the Commission sets out all the initiatives it is putting in place or will be putting in place to ensure that legislation does not increase the administrative burden on businesses. Impact analyses, SME tests and other consultations are included.
An effort is also required of the co-legislators when they formulate amendments to the texts. The Commission is asking them to measure the impact of the proposed changes.
See the communication: https://aeur.eu/f/fgn (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)