„EU Environment Omnibus” simplifying environmental legislation
Improve implementation, speed up procedures, relieve companies
March 2025
Europe must now take the express bus - make environmental law leaner, simpler and more efficient
Trust-based regulation for more personal responsibility on the part of project operators
A culture of mistrust towards industry is spreading throughout the EU. European legislators hardly trust companies to do anything, everything is regulated and controlled down to the last detail. Companies have to spend more and more time fulfilling reporting and documentation obligations, complying with regulatory requirements and adapting to new regulations. The culture of mistrust towards business urgently needs to give way to trust-based regulation. Trust-based regulation should provide a framework that allows companies to act on their own responsibility, thereby strengthening them and creating more opportunities for growth.
This is confirmed by a survey conducted by BusinessEurope in February 2024 among companies in 21 European countries about their experiences with authorisation procedures in the EU. Of the 16 challenges faced by companies when obtaining authorisations, the complexity of EU/national legislation was ranked third by 79 percent of respondents.
Streamlining regulations, reducing unnecessary costs and burdens and making EU rules more efficient are essential first steps to foster innovation and strengthen Europe's industrial base while maintaining our high principles and standards. European businesses are calling for the EU regulatory framework to be adapted to the realities of global competition. This means adapting European legislation where necessary to the standards of our competitors, while ensuring that compromises remain possible. Simplified and streamlined rules will make it easier for companies to comply and achieve Europe's ambitious economic and environmental goals without unnecessary bureaucracy.
1. Chemicals strategy for sustainability/REACH regulation
When revising the REACH Regulation, the regulation of chemicals must be based on scientific risk analyses. The focus here must be on simplifying the rules and reducing the burden on companies. Generic approaches and blanket substance regulations do not simplify matters for the economy but are associated with additional burdens and restrictions in the urgently needed availability of substances. There is a considerable need for improvement, particularly with regard to the authorisation and restriction procedure under REACH. For example, the authorisation procedure should be adapted and simplified. Deadlines and processes must be defined in such a way that companies have sufficient planning security. Additional new requirements, e.g. in the form of new reporting or further registration obligations, must be ruled out.
2. Water economy
The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) now requires very lengthy preparations and studies by the project sponsors. There is a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the achievement of the objectives in 2027, particularly with regard to the deviating management objectives and exemptions provided for in the WFD. The introduction of at least a further three management cycles, a practical definition of the non-deterioration principle and an appropriate extension of the possibilities for derogations and exemptions within the framework of the existing requirements of the WFD would make a significant contribution to reducing reporting obligations.
3. Producer responsibility
The introduction of extended producer responsibility in water law as a financing instrument of the Urban Waste Water Directive will, in its current form, lead to a one-sided cost burden on the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries and ultimately to supply bottlenecks and a shortage of pharmaceuticals. For essential active pharmaceutical ingredients, EPR costs will exceed sales revenues - products will disappear from the European market. In addition, without harmonised EU-wide implementation, there is a risk of fragmented national approaches, which will result in additional bureaucracy, costs and effort for internationally active companies. To maintain and stabilise the healthcare systems in the member states, the European Commission should examine the extent to which a further omnibus procedure can provide a solution to this conflict-laden issue.
4. Laws on the restoration of nature/Natura 2000
The Natura 2000 directives need to be revised and adapted to today's requirements. There is no need to relax the nature conservation standards. Nevertheless, significant improvements are possible and necessary to reduce the reporting obligations for industrial companies, e.g. a differentiation between common and rare species, a strengthening of population protection, creation of larger and contiguous compensation areas that are not spatially connected, utilisation of industrial wasteland with the help of a regulation on temporary nature conservation. In addition, standards/conventions must be developed with all stakeholders to prevent excessive expert reports.
5. Delimit and extend the EU emergency regulation
The EU Emergency Regulation, which was adopted in 2022 and has since been extended to 2025, allows EU member states to issue exemptions in the area of species protection and environmental impact assessments (EIAs), which significantly accelerate projects. The EU should not only remove
the time limit on the Emergency Regulation but also extend its scope to include all projects that contribute to achieving climate protection targets and reduce reporting obligations.
6. Ecodesign Regulation
With a few exceptions, the new Ecodesign Regulation is intended to cover almost all products to make them more environmentally and climate friendly. The Commission will issue product-specific delegated acts over the coming years to implement the regulation. This involves considerable effort and extensive intervention in internal company processes. The companies concerned must therefore be sufficiently involved in their development to enable feasible and effective design specifications for products.
7. Soil Monitoring Law
As a result of the new "Soil Monitoring Directive", there is a risk that the use of soil for economic purposes, for the cultivation of foodstuffs, for the extraction of raw materials and for settlements and transport areas will be considerably restricted and soon only be authorised in exceptional cases at most for reasons of soil protection. The Commission proposal must therefore be fundamentally revised from the industry's point of view - in particular, the directive must be limited to soil monitoring and appropriate exceptions must be made to ensure that tried and tested specialised legislation continues to be applied.
8. EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED)
The new IED will result in considerable additional financial costs and bureaucracy for the operators of industrial plants However, investments must not be made more difficult and the necessary transformation of the economy towards climate neutrality must not be delayed. In this respect, the regulations of the Industrial Emissions Directive should be reconsidered. For example, the newly introduced additional IED environmental management system, including a chemicals management system and transformation plan, creates considerable additional bureaucracy and duplicate regulations with no recognisable benefit for the environment.
9. Directive on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (EU/2016/2284 - NEC Directive)
The Federation of German Industries is of the opinion that the NEC Directive is no longer necessary with regard to the contribution of industrial sources (including energy production) to the emission of air pollutants. It should therefore be abolished or no longer extended. The recently amended directives on industrial emissions and air quality set very ambitious targets for the EU and are sufficient to ensure a high level of protection for people and the environment. In addition, the NEC Directive is no longer needed. This proposal is also in line with the EU Commission President's aim of simplifying and debureaucratising EU law.
Imprint
Federation of German Industries (BDI)
Breite Straße 29, 10178 Berlin www.bdi.eu
T: +49 30 2028-0
Lobby registration number: R000534
EU Transparency Register: 1771817758-48
Editorial team
RAin Catrin Schiffer Environment, Technology and Sustainability Officer
T: +49 30 2028-1582 c.schiffer@bdi.eu
BDI document number: D2062