ENVIRONMENTAL OMNIBUS: The implications of the EU's great green simplification drive
ENDS Europe editor Jamie Carpenter hosts a discussion-based webinar with senior EU decision-makers and environmental policy experts to examine the implications of the European Commission’s environmental omnibus package.
The EU’s ‘simplification’ agenda – intended to slash administrative costs for businesses – is gathering pace. The first of a series of omnibuses – targeted at sustainability reporting and due diligence rules – is now nearing adoption, with others following closely behind in its slipstream. They include packages to ease regulations in areas including chemicals, defence, the digital sector, food and feed – and on the environment.
While the scope of the environmental omnibus is not as wide as some had sought – moves from EU simplification tsar Valdis Dombrovskis to include the Nature Restoration Law and the revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive in the scope of the package were reportedly unsuccessful – it nevertheless has potentially far-reaching ramifications for the future shape of green policy and implementation.
As well as measures to simplify legislation in the areas of industrial emissions, the circular economy, environmental assessments and geospatial data, the final package of proposals, published on 10 December 2025, includes amendments to the EU’s Birds and Habitats directives, in what some critics see as an attempt to impose environmental deregulation on national governments.
In this ENDS Europe webinar, we examine these emerging policy proposals with a range of informed speakers. We discuss what’s happened so far and what environmental policywatchers can expect to come, including the positions that key stakeholders are likely to take and where the flashpoints are likely to arise as the legislative package progresses.
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SpeakersJamie Carpenter Editor ENDS Europe
Ewa Malz Head of unit DG ENV, European Commission
Ioannis Agapakis Lawyer, biodiversity governance ClientEarth
Peter Sellar Partner Squire Patton Boggs
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Award winning editor Jamie has been editor of market leading environmental publications ENDS Report and ENDS Europe, published by Haymarket Media Group, since 2017. He was previously deputy editor of Planning magazine, and before that Regeneration & Renewal.
Ewa Malz is head of the Strategy, Digitalisation, Better Regulation and Economic Analysis unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment.
Ewa has 20 years of experience in the public sector, including 17 at EU level and three years in the Polish administration. She has worked in several thematic policy areas, including environment policy, cohesion policy, migration, justice and home affairs, rule of law, fight against corruption and organised crime, consumer policy, multi-annual financial framework negotiations.
Ewa is passionate about championing digital solutions for the green transition.
Ioannis joined ClientEarth in 2020 and is a lawyer working on biodiversity governance in its Terrestrial & Freshwater Ecosystems Team, based in Brussels. On the EU front, his advocacy has involved the heavily politicised Nature Restoration Regulation, the Renewable Energy Directive and, more recently, the Environment Omnibus and Grids Package, while also preparing litigation strategies in these policy areas.
Before joining ClientEarth, Ioannis was a legal intern in the Development Law Service of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Ioannis is a licensed legal practitioner and holds an LL.M. from Utrecht University.
Peter Sellar is a partner in law firm Squire Patton Boggs' Brussels office. He has extensive experience advising clients on EU environmental, social and governance law, including on general chemicals, biocides and pesticides, ecodesign, electronic and electrical equipment, cosmetics, medical devices and medical products law, as well as on the circular economy and sustainability law.