16/12/2025
The European Parliament’s adoption of Omnibus I marks a turning point in the EU’s legislative direction – and not for the better. Under the banner of “simplification” and competitiveness, lawmakers have gutted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), rolling back hard-won protections for human rights, the environment and access to justice. This outcome was not inevitable. It was political.
Once again, the European People’s Party (EPP) chose to secure a majority by aligning with far-right groups, enabling a deregulatory agenda that weakens climate obligations, dilutes value-chain responsibilities and reduces penalties for corporate harm. Climate transition plans were deleted altogether. Enforcement was softened. Victims’ pathways to justice were narrowed. This vote fits a broader and deeply troubling pattern. At The Good Lobby, our EU Far-Right Tracker documents how the EPP has repeatedly relied on far-right groups to pass legislation (this is the 17th time from 2024) – from blocking green laws to undermining ethics and accountability mechanisms. Omnibus I now joins a growing list of files where short-term parliamentary arithmetic has trumped democratic safeguards and the public interest. What is presented as “cutting red tape” is, in reality, cutting rights and once again normalising far-right influence over EU lawmaking in the process.
Ethics Complaint Against Omnibus I’s rapporteur
As if the political dynamics weren’t alarming enough, serious conflict-of-interest concerns hang over Omnibus I. Civil society organisations, including The Good Lobby, have filed a formal ethics complaint over corporate lobbying shaping this file from the inside. Swedish MEP Jörgen Warborn was the rapporteur on Omnibus I and simultaneously President of SME Europe, a registered lobby organisation actively campaigning for those same rollbacks.
What’s next: Omnibus as a governing method
Crucially, this approach is not just politically problematic but legally fragile. Prof Alemanno’s legal analysis shows that although omnibus legislation is not automatically illegal, Omnibus I’s deregulatory use risks breaching EU constitutional requirements on proportionality, transparency and democratic participation, exposing the package to serious annulment risks before the Court of Justice.
Adding to these legal concerns, the European Ombudsman has formally opened an inquiry into how the European Commission prepared the Omnibus proposal, finding “procedural shortcomings” and suggesting the handling of the file may amount to maladministration under the EU’s Better Regulation rules – particularly because of rushed procedures, inadequate impact assessment and limited stakeholder consultation – even though the Ombudsman cannot itself annul the legislation.
Omnibus I is only the beginning. The EU’s deregulation drive is being rolled out through a series of omnibus packages, framed as technical simplification but carrying major political consequences. Upcoming and ongoing omnibus initiatives cover areas including:
- Omnibus II – Investments
- Omnibus III – Common agricultural policy
- Omnibus IV – small mid-caps and digitalisation
- Omnibus V – defence readiness
- Omnibus VI – chemicals
- Omnibus VII – Digital
- Omnibus VIII – Environmental
By bundling sweeping policy changes into single “simplification” files, scrutiny is reduced, debate is compressed, and controversial rollbacks become easier to pass – especially when mainstream parties lean on far-right votes to get them through.