EU Commission Presents the Clean Industrial Deal: Simpler Regulations

At the end of February 2025, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the cornerstones of the Clean Industrial Deal (CID) to around 400 business leaders in Antwerp. In particular, it frees small and medium-sized companies from some regulatory overhead, such as excessive reporting requirements. According to the EU plan, an updated version of REACH will be published before the end of this year.

Chemical industry hardly competitive anymore
The chemical industry is particularly affected by bureaucratic burdens and high energy prices. Compared to companies in the USA and China, the industry in Germany is therefore barely competitive. This is all the more important as the chemical sector is the key economy for many other branches of industry. A recent study by Cefic on the competitiveness of the chemical industry shows that in the past two years, more than 11 million tons of production capacity at 21 major sites have been or are to be shut down.

CID as the key to turnaround
With the CID, the EU wants to make Europe a Mecca for green production sites. To this end, it is realigning its industrial and climate policy agenda. The priorities include the affordability of energy, a functioning circular economy and international partnerships.

Omnibus packages to ease the burden
At the same time, the EU has launched so-called omnibus packages. The term "omnibus" stands for a legislative initiative that aims to introduce changes to various existing regulations at the same time. These regulations are the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Supply Chain Act (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive) and the EU Taxonomy. With this initiative, the EU aims to bundle and simplify the reporting obligations of the CSRD, the Supply Chain Act and the EU Taxonomy into a single law.

Examples reporting obligation and supply chain
The example of the CSRD shows just how far-reaching the new draft is. According to this, only companies with more than 1,000 employees and a net annual turnover of at least 50 million euros will be required to report. Conversely, this means that The reporting obligation would no longer apply to around 80 percent of companies.
The changes to the Supply Chain Act are similarly striking. While the previous draft provided for due diligence for the entire supply chain, the current draft proposal would only apply to direct business partners, so-called Tier 1 suppliers.

What happens now?
The EU has currently put the omnibus draft out for public consultation. Comments on the draft proposals can be submitted until March 26, 2025. According to the EU, the final regulation should be available in the second quarter of 2025. The Commission has asked for the legislative initiative to be treated as a priority.

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