Simplification and the omnibus packages: targets, figures and the numbered list

The targets: 25%, 35% and EUR 37.5 billion

Simplification runs through the whole mandate. The Political Guidelines of 18 July 2024 promise "speed, coherence and simplification" and a Vice-President to "stress-test the entire EU acquis", but they give no percentage. The numbers come from the Commission's communication A simpler and faster Europe, COM(2025) 47, adopted in Strasbourg on 11 February 2025 with the 2025 work programme.

COM(2025) 47 recalls that the Commission had set targets to cut reporting burdens "by at least 25% for all companies and 35% for SMEs". It then widens the baseline from reporting costs to all administrative costs, which Eurostat approximated at EUR 150 billion in 2022:

The same section says "Dedicated measures for SMEs will aim to meet the 35% target", and that the Commission had proposed measures saving about EUR 5 billion since the 25% target was announced in March 2023. The Commission's simplification page states the aim in the same terms: to "cut recurring administrative costs by €37.5 billion by the end of the 2024-2029 Commission mandate".

The tools that go with the targets

• Implementation dialogues: "Each Commissioner will host at least two implementation dialogues a year with stakeholders" (COM(2025) 47).
• Stress-testing the stock of EU legislation, starting with the evaluations and fitness checks listed in the work programme.
• Reality checks with practitioners, in particular SMEs and small mid-caps.
• Annual progress reports: each Commissioner reports on implementation and enforcement to the relevant Parliament committee and Council formation.
• Coordination by the Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification. The Guidelines spoke of a Vice-President; the College announced on 17 September 2024 gives the role to a Commissioner, as a second role.

Savings so far: which figure is which

Several official savings figures circulate, each from a different date and scope. They are not in conflict, but a question will use one of them precisely.

The numbered omnibus list, I to XII

An omnibus proposal, in the simplification page's words, "amends multiple existing EU legal acts at the same time, usually across the same policy area". The page numbers twelve of them. Each date below was checked on the first page of at least one of the package's own proposals; the savings are the page's estimates.

Next on the page: a citizens omnibus, planned for Q4 2026. It also appears in Annex I of the 2026 work programme. As of 26 October 2026 the page lists no thirteenth package.

Omnibus I and II in detail (26 February 2025)

The first two packages are the most tested, because they fall inside the first 100 days. Press release IP/25/614 gives the figures of the proposals as tabled:

• remove "around 80% of companies from the scope of CSRD";
• postpone by two years, until 2028, reporting for companies due to report from 2026 or 2027;
• reduce due-diligence monitoring of partners "from annual to 5 years", and postpone application for the largest companies by one year, to 26 July 2028;
• a CBAM threshold of 50 tonnes per importer, removing obligations for about 182,000 importers, or 90%, "while still covering over 99% emissions in scope";
• about EUR 6.3 billion of annual administrative savings, and EUR 50 billion of extra public and private investment capacity through InvestEU.

These are proposal figures. The simplification page records the adopted acts: the "stop-the-clock" Directive (EU) 2025/794, adopted on 14 April 2025; the CBAM Regulation (EU) 2025/2083, adopted on 8 October 2025; and the reporting and due-diligence Directive (EU) 2026/470, adopted on 24 February 2026. All three dates are inside every 2026 cut-off.

Other adoption dates, and which are later

Better regulation: shorter consultations, COM(2026) 380

On 28 April 2026 the Commission adopted A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, COM(2026) 380. It introduces "simplicity by design", a new high-level expert group called the Simplification Platform, and a change to the standard public consultation:

Position: 28 April 2026 is before our estimated AD5 cut-off of 29 May 2026, so the change is in scope for AD5, AST3, AD6 and AST2. It was outside the AD7 cut-off of 31 March 2026. More consultation numbers are in better regulation: the numbers that get tested.

Traps

• EUR 37.5 billion, not 37.8. No official source we found gives 37.8.
• 35% for SMEs. A staff union's note on the 2025 sitting reported a question keyed to a 50% figure from the report on "The Future of European Competitiveness" rather than the adopted 35% (reported).
• The targets are not in the Political Guidelines. They appear in the Competitiveness Compass, COM(2025) 47 and the work programmes.
• Target and result are different numbers. EUR 37.5 billion is the goal for the mandate; EUR 15 billion is the 2025 result.
• Count the omnibus packages by date. Twelve by June 2026, but only ten were presented before the AD5 cut-off.

Practise figures like these in our free 30-question test, where every answer shows its source and date. The full mocks come in English, French or German, under Commission or open-competition rules. For the wider list of packages, see the 2025 packages and the 2024-2029 priorities.