Omnibus environment - Simplification of administrative burden in environmental legislation

Practical information

1. Composition of the study group
2. Administrators / Assistant in charge: Gaizka MALO, Alice SENGA / Lukáš ĎURECH
3. Contact

Background

The European Commission's legislative initiative brings together a series of measures to simplify environmental legislation to reduce administrative burden and streamline administrative procedures for EU businesses. The aim is to reduce the administrative burden without affecting the environmental objectives agreed under the existing legislation. In particular, the initiative will aim to reduce the administrative burden stemming from environmental legislation in the areas of, among others, industrial installations and circular economy, environmental assessments and permitting, chemical waste, Extended Producer Responsibility and waste management.

This may include the following measures:

• rationalising reporting/notification obligations, for example, the discontinuation of the SCIP (substances of concern in products) database under the Waste Framework Directive; 

• harmonisation of the provisions for authorised representatives for extended producer responsibility (EPR) in each Member State where a producer sells a product falling under EPR rules and on facilitation of EPR reporting;

• streamlining reporting obligations, removing double requirements to report, promoting further digitalisation of reporting in the area of circular economy, industrial emissions and waste management, while maintaining the policy objectives;;

• addressing permitting challenges relating to environment assessments based on experience recently gained such as under the Net Zero Industry Act.