The European Commission has published its response to European Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho’s findings on the process behind the Omnibus I directive to simplify the CSRD and CSDDD.
Based her enquiries into the Omnibus I proposals, and its legislative proposals on agriculture and people smuggling, Anjinho found “a number of procedural shortcomings”.
The Commissions responded that the Omnibus I package was introduced in an urgent manner because the second wave of companies would have had to report under the CSRD from 2026, and the Member States were originally set to transpose the CSDDD by July 2026.
It wrote: “All the proposals referred to above have since either been adopted by the co-legislators or have reached the final, or an advanced, stage of negotiations between the co-legislators, which demonstrates that the evidence provided in support of these proposals has been considered sufficient by them.”
However, the Commission also stated that it “recognises the importance of ensuring that any urgency is properly recorded and explained to ensure maximum transparency”.
The statement reads: “the Commission will reflect on more transparent parameters for its assessment of the need to act urgently in its upcoming Communication on better regulation planned for adoption in the second quarter of 2026. It will do so while ensuring that the Commission’s discretion to respond to urgent situations is not impeded, and also underpinning high standards of transparency and accountability.”
The European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) has argued that the European Commission’s reply “falls short”.
ECCJ policy officer Virginie Rouas said: “Omnibus I was prepared without meeting basic EU standards on transparency, evidence, and consultation. Admitting the need for minor fixes while ignoring the core problem only confirms how unsound the Commission’s approach to ‘simplification’ truly is.”
