Omnibus on small mid-caps

599 Press & Media

Background

The Commission’s fourth Omnibus Simplification package seeks to tailor EU rules to a new 'small mid‑cap' (SMC) category while maintaining standards across areas such as capital markets, trade defence, product rules and data protection. The policy debate turns on how proportionate obligations should be set for companies that have grown beyond SME thresholds and how to avoid unintended effects across Member States and sectors.

Scope and scale matter. The Commission’s Single Market Strategy estimates the SMC category could cover about 38 000 companies EU‑wide, alongside roughly 26 million SMEs that must still navigate compliance. Getting thresholds right and ensuring they are comparable across diverse national structures is central to legal certainty and a level playing field.

Process design is another concern: limited consultation, scarce impact assessments and a lack of ex‑post evaluation make it harder to judge real costs and benefits, including for public authorities. Definitions that diverge between Member States risk fragmenting the single market and adding legal complexity when individual laws are amended piece-meal.

On data protection, many companies continue to face disproportionate documentation burdens; clarity on risk‑based obligations is pivotal. On product information, a shift toward digital‑only instructions would still require paper during a transition.

 

Key points:

In the opinion, the EESC:

  • welcomes the European Commission’s efforts to simplify legislation and reduce specific administrative burdens but, at the same time, it also expresses concerns regarding the consultation process, the limited debate on the proposed changes and the lack of impact assessments;
  • invites the Commission to comprehensively map the EU business landscape by company size and according to specific Member States’ characteristics with the aim to ensuring more appropriate thresholds and scope of the Small Mid-Caps (SMC) category;
  • encourages the Commission to present further targeted GDPR simplification measures, having many companies still facing disproportionate compliance requirements such as extensive record-keeping.

Read the opinion.

 

Additional information

Section: Single Market, Production and Consumption

Opinion number: INT/1095

Opinion type: Exploratory/legislative opinion (Omnibus Simplification on SMCs)

Rapporteur: Katrina ZARIŅA

Co-rapporteur: Panagiotis GKOFAS

Referral: European Parliament and Council of the European Union

Legal basis: Article 114 TFEU; Articles 114(1) & 192(1) TFEU (file a)

Commission documents: COM(2025) 501, 502, 503, 504 (final)

Relevant SDGs: 7, 8, 9, 13

Date of adoption by section: 2/9/2025

Date of adoption in plenary: 18/9/2025

Result of the vote: 142 in favour/0 against/1 abstention

 

Contacts:

Press officer: Laura Lui

Tel.: +32 2 546 9189

Email: laurairena.lui@eesc.europa.eu

Administrator: Marco Manfroni

Tel.: +32 2 546 9140

Email: marco.manfroni@eesc.europa.eu

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