With its Omnibus Packages, the EU Commission, under the banner of simplification and with reference to the competitiveness of the EU, has presented five packages within just a few months, with the aim of simplifying or removing ‘unnecessary’ regulations. However, the Omnibus I package presented in February 2025, which would greatly water down the recently adopted Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), has already shown that in this case ‘simplification’ would mean, among other, lowering protection standards for victims of human rights violations.

With this in mind, EPSU General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan pointed out once again in his opening remarks at the event that although the Commission talks about simplification, what it is actually promoting is deregulation. This was contradicted by Mirzha de Manuel (Cabinet of Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis), who emphasised that the Commission was only concerned with simplification, not deregulation. During the event, the Commission was also confronted with the fact that, according to OECD data, companies in many European countries are actually less regulated than in the United States. De Manuel responded by pointing out that the call for simplification had been made to the Commission by expert groups and during consultations with companies.

In a panel discussion on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Nele Meyer (ECCJ) highlighted how little the Commission had adhered to its own guidelines on better regulation in its Omnibus I package. Neither had the social and environmental impacts of the Omnibus proposal been assessed in advance, nor had the 12-week consultation period been observed. One must assume that EU legislation has been captured by a small group of industrial companies. MEP Anna Cavazzini (Greens) emphasised that it was also important to reverse the false narrative that climate policy is bad for business. She cited the reform of the EU customs union as a good example of a forward-looking regulatory project aimed at better protecting consumers from a growing flood of cheap imports.

During the conference, those directly affected and activists used various case studies to highlight the consequences for the general public of rolling back regulations or the lack of legislation. One of the issues mentioned was the lack of legislation on PFAS, a group of chemicals found in many everyday products and also used in industrial manufacturing processes. Apart from the personal impact on those affected, the diseases caused by PFAS also result, among other, in considerable costs for public health systems.

In conclusion, Patrizia Heidegger (European Environmental Bureau) pointed out that the Commission's target of reducing administrative burdens by 25% was arbitrary. Isabelle Schömann (Deputy General Secretary of the ETUC) emphasised that it was not the burden of regulations that was holding the EU back from prosperity, but rather the lack of investment in key areas.

Investigation by the EU Ombudsman and report by the Fundamental Rights Agency

On 21 May 2025, a new investigation was launched by the European Ombudsman, Teresa Anjinho. The inquiry follows a complaint by eight civil society organisations who argue that the Commission breached its guidelines on better regulation by failing to justify why it did not carry out a public consultation or impact assessment before presenting its Omnibus I proposal.

The latest annual report of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights has also recently been published, which refers to the current omnibus proposals in several passages. The report warns that ‘simplification and deregulation may come at the expense of human rights and environmental protection.’ As the ETUC pointed out in its press release on the annual report, it is noteworthy that the EU's in-house human rights watchdog is joining trade unions and activists ‘in raising the alarm over the warning over the risk to workers’ rights posed by deregulation against the Commission's current deregulation proposals’.

Further information:

AK EUROPA: Omnibus I
A&W Blog: Omnibus: Wie die EU-Kommission Schutz­vorschriften im Eil­tempo los­werden will (How the EU Commission wants to get rid of protective regulations at breakneck speed)  (German only)
ETUC: Joint European Trade Union Statement on the Omnibus Proposal: A Direct Attack on Workers’ Rights and Corporate Accountability
ECCJ (et al.): Joint Statement on Omnibus