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European Commission

Simplification

The European Commission works to strengthen EU competitiveness while protecting economic, social, and environmental objectives.

The European Commission is reducing regulatory burdens to strengthen EU competitiveness while protecting economic, social, and environmental objectives.

The Commission has a comprehensive set of instruments that supports the drive towards simplification:

Overview

Simpler regulation and reducing regulatory burdens are instrumental to a more competitive and attractive Europe.

To enable a more favourable business environment, the Commission has introduced targets to lower the administrative burden by at least 25% for all businesses, and by at least 35% for SMEs. 

To this end, it puts forwards omnibus proposals and other legislative initiatives with a significant simplification dimension.

The Commission work programmes include the most significant proposals. Half of the proposals for the 2026 Commission work programme are simplification.

What savings can be expected?

The Commission aims to cut recurring administrative costs by €37.5 billion by the end of the 2024-2029 Commission mandate. Its omnibus proposals and other simplification initiatives have so far have resulted in €15 billion in net annual savings.

On the top of this, it has removed an additional €5.6 billion in one-off administrative costs.

Meeting this goal significantly increases the level of ambition of the ‘one in, one out approach’, in which the Commission proposed net administrative cost savings for businesses and citizens amounting to nearly €14 billion over the 2022-2024 period. 

 

Omnibus proposals

An omnibus proposal is a package of legislative proposals that amends multiple existing EU legal acts at the same time, usually across the same policy area. This approach ensures efficiency and coherence, enabling us to progress towards policy objectives.

In 2025, the Commission proposed ten omnibus proposals that reduce recurrent administrative costs by €11.9 billion. 

  1. Q2 2026
    • Energy product legislation omnibus
    • Taxation omnibus
  2. Q4 2026
    • Citizens omnibus

Simplifying existing legislation

Stress testing

Taking a critical look at the existing legislative burdens is crucial for advancing the Commission simplification agenda and ensuring that the EU regulatory framework remains relevant, proportionate and efficient in achieving its goals. To this end, each Commissioner has been tasked with systematically reviewing EU law to simplify it, prioritising the areas where the burden is most significant. 

As part of this process, evaluations and fitness checks look at the overall impact of the laws to make sure the rules remain clear, efficient, and fit for purpose. The findings shape future simplification packages. 

The Commission is also screening its delegated and implementing acts, which constitute a significant portion of the regulatory framework, to prioritise those that that are necessary to implement the main acts and those that ensure simplification.

Reality checks

The Commission is conducting reality checks with those implementing or directly affected by EU law to better understand how it works on the ground. These direct interactions enable the Commission to identify hurdles or positive outcomes, assess the validity of the assumptions behind EU legislation, and determine if the expected benefits have been delivered.

Reality checks have helped shape the proposals for simplification, including omnibus proposals, such as the reality checks organised with practitioners on sustainability, on fertilisers, cosmetics and classification, labelling and packaging, on industrial decarbonisation accelerator, and on defence.

Examples

Reality check on state aid rules for affordable housing 

We solicited input and information from stakeholders and Member States on real-life situations and practical difficulties in the affordable housing sector, in particular on the main current and potential obstacles to implementing state aid rules.

Reality check on medical devices 

We identified obstacles in implementing the legislation with the help of patients, healthcare professionals and manufacturers.

Reality check on implementation of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) 

We explored together with beneficiaries and business support organisations the use of the STEP portal, and the benefits and obstacles to receiving funding for STEP projects.

Improving how we make new legislation

SME and competitiveness checks

To ensure that new legislation boosts the competitiveness of EU companies, SME and competitiveness checks are systematically applied during its preparation.

This process identifies any potential issues related to the competitive position of affected EU companies and helps formulate appropriate mitigating measures as well as present more clearly the impacts on SMEs.

Digital policies

The Commission assesses the digital aspect of its policy initiatives and promotes the principles of ‘digital by default’ and ‘once only’, in partnership with national, regional and local authorities and the relevant EU agencies. 

This approach ensures policies are digital-ready and guarantees that citizens, institutions and companies need to provide standard information to authorities and administrations only once.