30/07/2026
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy has created an online tracker to help animal advocates monitor the European Commission’s “omnibus” proposals, which seek to amend dozens of existing laws simultaneously through a fast and complex legislative process, including in areas that directly affect animals.
Acting under the guise of “simplification” and flexibility, the Commission’s omnibus processes have further undermined transparency in EU lawmaking. Rather than fixing the excessive number of overly complex EU laws passed over the past two decades, the Commission instead has created more confusion in the legislative process by systematically resorting to initiatives that introduce amendments to multiple legislative texts simultaneously, hence the use of the Latin term omnibus, meaning “covering everything.” Each of these omnibus regulations bundle unrelated measures, which can make their content challenging to follow.
Among many new measures brought by omnibus regulations, several are detrimental to animal welfare. For instance, the Food & Feed Omnibus proposed scrapping specific reporting obligations on depopulation operations under the Slaughter Regulation (Regulation 1099/2009), on the basis that similar requirements exist under another statute, the Official Controls Regulation (Regulation 2017/625). However, the monitoring and reporting requirements under the Official Controls Regulation are not as specific as those provided under the Slaughter Regulation. Despite its deleterious consequences on animal welfare, public health, and public information, this measure was nevertheless proposed by the Commission without impact assessments or meaningful public consultation. The accelerated pace of reforms through omnibus regulations has led the European Ombudsman to identify, in a recent inquiry, the existence of “procedural shortcomings, including limited impact assessments, insufficient inter-service consultations, and inadequate transparency.”
As a result of these often complicated legislative processes, the animal protection movement needs to know the contents of these omnibus proposals now more than ever. To shed light on this process, the European Institute for Animal Law & Policy has created an omnibus tracker, which offers a centralized, user-friendly overview of how these proposals relate to animal protection issues.
Each of the ten omnibus packages proposed so far – which cover topics including sustainability, the environment, the Common Agricultural Policy, and Food and Feed – has its own section in the online tracker. Within these sections, each proposal is shown with its scope and a description of how it relates to animal welfare, including key changes and impacts for animals. A color-coded timeline shows each proposal’s current status in the legislative process, and readers who wish to dive deeper into the procedure can also find a link to the relevant page on the European Parliament’s Legislative Observatory website.
“Like many other organizations, we are skeptical of the rationale behind the Commission’s reliance on this particular legislative instrument, and we recognize the importance of tracking the changes,” says Gladys Le Goff, Junior Researcher at The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy. “By centralizing information on the schedules and substance of negotiations within the EU institutions on ongoing legislative files affecting animal welfare and food transition, and presenting our findings in a concise and accessible format, we hope we’ll help other groups and animal advocates to stay current with legislative changes, so that they can plan their advocacy strategies accordingly.”
The information on impacts on animals is gathered and kept up to date by the Institute’s Policy Team. The information in the tracker will be continually updated until every file is voted upon, which we expect will happen by the end of 2026 at the earliest.
To explore the European Institute for Animal Law & Policy’s Omnibus Tracker, visit https://animallaweurope.org/omnibus-tracker – and if you find it useful, please share it via social media and with your contacts in the animal advocacy movement.
About the European Institute for Animal Law and Policy
As the first Brussels-based think-and-do tank specializing in animal law & policy, the European Institute for Animal Law & Policy’s mission is to advance the interests of animals in the EU and advocate for them at EU and national levels. The Institute guides all parties involved in animal-related rule-making, whether in legislation and regulations, private standards, or non-written common industry practices, and works with other nonprofits and public administrations to help achieve better treatment for animals. Its expertise focuses on non-human animals used for all types of exploitative purposes: food and fiber, entertainment, science, and companionship, as well as wild animals; it also supports the development of animal law as an autonomous legal and academic discipline.
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