{"id":35841,"date":"2025-03-06T11:53:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T10:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reclaimfinance.org\/site\/en\/?p=35841"},"modified":"2025-03-06T17:03:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T16:03:40","slug":"eu-omnibus-a-playground-for-industry-lobbies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reclaimfinance.org\/site\/en\/2025\/03\/06\/eu-omnibus-a-playground-for-industry-lobbies\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Omnibus: a playground for industry lobbies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EU Omnibus is a massive deregulation endeavour that empties out due diligence and sustainability reporting obligations. Designed by the European Commission through an opaque process that ignored the governance and democratic rules of the Union, the project jeopardizes years of legislative work aiming to ensure companies respect human and social rights, preserve the environment and align with climate goals. In this context, Reclaim Finance analysed the Omnibus proposal in a note and uncovered a very high degree of similarity between its content and the desires of industry lobbies (Medef\/BDI\/Confindustria, the French Banking Federation, Business Europe and the American Chamber of Commerce). This finding suggests the proposal is the result of corporate capture and makes it a democratic necessity to stop the Omnibus.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Omnibus proposal put forward by the European Commission would turn due diligence into a compliance exercise and erase the requirement to implement a climate transition plan. At the same time, it would limit mandatory reporting to a handful of very large companies and focus on information that is already \u2013 at least partially \u2013 available today, thus failing to address the need to provide ample reliable data.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, <\/span>the Omnibus is an historical attack<\/a><\/span> on human rights, environmental protection and climate action, at odds with the bloc\u2019s own objectives. It directly conflicts with the need to mobilize massive financing to fund the ecological transition, with 80% of the additional funding needed coming from the private sector according to the Draghi report.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

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An exceptional process, <\/span>opening the door to regulatory capture<\/span><\/span><\/h1><\/span>
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In February 2025, fifty-two organizations<\/a> \u2013 including Reclaim Finance \u2013 warned the Commission that \u201cthe process underpinning the Omnibus proposal is depriving the public of its democratic rights under the Treaties\u201d and that there was a \u201cserious risk of regulatory capture\u201d. Indeed, the Omnibus was rushed through by the Commission without public consultation. It targets directives that are still to be fully implemented, without waiting for evaluations nor providing any impact assessment. On the contrary, many of the changes proposed contradict previous impact assessments.<\/p>\n

The input received by the Commission originated from direct meetings with stakeholders and two \u201cso-called\u201d forums where it presented its project. The exact content of the meetings<\/a> Commissioners leading on the Omnibus \u2013 and notably Commissioner Dombrovskis and Executive Vice-President S\u00e9journ\u00e9 \u2013 and their teams had with large companies and their representatives in the weeks preceding the proposal is not disclosed.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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A <\/span>\u201c<\/span>copy-paste<\/span>\u201d<\/span> from the core demands of industry lobbies<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1><\/span>
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In this context, Reclaim Finance analysed the demands from four major industry groups received by the Commissioners recently looking at the below documents:<\/p>\n