EU Parliament Pushes Back on Omnibus Package: Regulatory Streamlining Rejected

Entanglement in sustainable legislative simplification. Members of the European Parliament today voted against the proposal to reduce the sustainable burden on European companies, commonly known as the Omnibus package. The vote, which resulted in 309 votes in favor, but 318 against and 34 abstentions, is an unexpected turn of events, as the European Parliament and the Commission had reached a common text back in February, which now only had to be approved by the two bodies separately.

Proposed at the beginning of the year, the Omnibus package aims to boost the competitiveness of European businesses, mainly by reducing the legislative burdens arising from new environmental laws. The two main rules it influences are both the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (Csrd) and Due Diligence.

In the first case, the text implies a reduction in the number of companies affected, which will now be made up only of those with a turnover of more than 450 million euros and 1,000 employees. Regarding Due Diligence, on the other hand, the main change entailed the delay of its entry into force until July 2028 at the earliest.

The European Parliament voted against a text that had already been agreed with the Commission

“Today’s vote shows that for a large part of the Parliament, the compromise was simply not enough, while for others, it went too far,“ said Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, in statements reported by Politico.

Parliamentarians will now have to hold a new vote on November 13th, which will include amendments to the text rejected today by the European Parliament. Negotiations will then begin again with the Commission, which had already approved the text at the end of June.

This new bump adds pressure onthe EU Parliament, especially in the face of the clearer more conservative position of the current European Commission chaired by Ursula von der Leyen. “Today’s vote shows that the Parliament is not willing to backtrack on the European sustainability framework being pushed by the European People’s Party,“ said Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, a member of the European Parliament for the Green bloc in the European Parliament.