The reform aims to reduce unnecessary reporting requirements and administrative burdens on European industry and agriculture, strengthening the competitiveness of European businesses.
Markus Buchheit, shadow rapporteur for the ESN Group, commented:
“Today, for the first time in the Industry Committee, a centre-right majority prevailed over the left’s policy of overregulation. For years, European industry has faced ever more reporting obligations, documentation requirements and bureaucratic rules without measurable benefits for the environment or society. Today’s vote is a first step towards reversing this misguided approach.
The adopted compromise removes mandatory environmental management systems that duplicated existing certification schemes. It also abolishes chemicals inventories, substitution analyses and a scarcely used hazardous substances database that imposed significant IT costs on businesses.
In future, if compliance with the strictest emission limits costs more than ten percent of a project’s total investment, those costs will be presumed disproportionate unless the authorities prove otherwise. The permit review cycle will be extended from four to eight years, improving legal certainty and planning security for industrial investment. Crisis derogations will be extended from three to six months, while hydrogen-powered combustion plants will be exempted from technically unjustified emission limits.
The European Commission will also be required to assess by 2027 the impact of EU environmental legislation on the competitiveness of European industry.
The left’s alternative proposal merely relabelled bureaucracy instead of reducing it and was rightly rejected. Our industries do not need more paperwork. They need affordable energy, investment-friendly conditions and rules they can realistically comply with. Today’s vote marks an important first step in that direction.”
