On Tuesday 16 June in Luxembourg, European Commissioner for Justice Michael McGrath criticised during a brief public debate the choices made by the Member States regarding the various Omnibus packages aimed at simplifying European regulation and which “reduce the European Commission’s initial ambitions”.
The Commissioner said he was “concerned” that governments were moving away from their objective of strengthening competitiveness, listing several files which he considers problematic. He notably referred to the return of “double-notification procedures in the assessment of chemical products” and “the abandonment of the provision creating a single entry point” for reporting security incidents. He also criticised a weakening of the legislative text aimed at simplifying the GDPR regulation governing the protection of personal data, attributing this to the Member States.
To date, the European Commission has presented 10 so-called Omnibus packages in various areas, including corporate sustainability reporting obligations, agriculture, the digital sector, defence and the automotive sector.
The Commission has announced three other proposals for Omnibus measures in its 2026 work programme, two of which will be presented in June: one is on taxation (see EUROPE 13883/23) and the other relates to energy products. The third, focused on issues relating to European citizenship, will be presented in the fourth quarter.
On Tuesday, during the ‘General Affairs’ Council, the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU presented a summary note on the work carried out as part of the regulatory simplification efforts.
Read the note from the Cyprus Presidency: https://aeur.eu/f/mdh (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)