| 18/06/2025 16:15 | Press release | | | | | The Council presidency and European Parliament’s negotiators reached a provisional agreement today on one of the proposals of the so-called ‘Omnibus I’ legislative package: a regulation, which simplifies and strengthens the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). The proposal seeks to provide simplification and cost-efficient compliance improvements to the CBAM regulation, without compromising its climate goals, as about 99% of embedded emissions in the imported CBAM goods would remain covered. The overall aim is to reduce the regulatory and administrative burden, as well as compliance costs for EU companies, especially SMEs. “Simplification is a top priority for the Polish presidency. Today’s provisional agreement with the Parliament is yet another step towards reducing administrative burden for our companies and further boosting EU competitiveness.” | | — Adam Szłapka, Minister for the European Union of Poland |
Main elements of the agreementThe co-legislators retained the key components of the Commission proposal to simplify CBAM rules: a broader ‘de minimis’ exemption from CBAM obligations applicable to importers, which do not exceed a single mass-based threshold set at a level of 50 tonnes of imported goods per importer per year. This new threshold will replace the current and much narrower provisions of the CBAM regulation exempting goods of negligible value. The measure is expected, in most cases, to exempt from CBAM obligations SMEs and individuals, which import small or negligible quantities of goods covered by the CBAM regulation. The revised regulation will also permit to avoid any disruptions for importers in the beginning of 2026, as they will be able to continue importing CBAM goods while awaiting CBAM registration. Furthermore, the provisional agreement contains several other simplification measures for all importers of CBAM goods above the threshold. This concerns particularly the authorisation procedure, the data collection processes, the calculation of embedded emissions, the emission verification rules, the calculation of the CBAM declarants’ financial liability during the year of imports, and the claim by CBAM declarants for carbon prices paid in third countries where goods are produced. An agreement was also reached between the co-legislators on penalties and on the rules regarding indirect customs representatives. Finally, the text contains further specifications deemed both useful and necessary for the purposes of certainty and clarity regarding the arrangement on financing of the costs incurred in connection with the establishment, operation and management of the common central CBAM platform, which will be used to sell CBAM certificates to CBAM declarants. Next stepsToday’s provisional agreement must be now endorsed by the Council and the European Parliament before formal adoption, expected by September 2025.
BackgroundIn October 2024, the European Council called on all EU institutions, member states and stakeholders, as a matter of priority, to take work forward, notably in response to the challenges identified in the reports by Enrico Letta (‘Much more than a market’) and Mario Draghi (‘The future of European competitiveness’). The Budapest declaration of 8 November 2024 subsequently called for ‘launching a simplification revolution’, by ensuring a clear, simple and smart regulatory framework for businesses and drastically reducing administrative, regulatory and reporting burdens, in particular for SMEs. On 26 February 2025, as a follow-up to EU leaders’ call, the Commission put forward two ‘Omnibus’ packages, aiming to simplify existing legislation in the fields of sustainability and investment, respectively. | ● Council of the EU | | | 18/06/2025 15:11 | Meetings | | | | | The Agriculture and Fisheries Council will seek to reach a general approach on a regulation for a forest monitoring framework, and discuss trade-related agricultural issues. Fisheries ministers will exchange views on a Commission communication on sustainable fishing in the EU, highlighting their overall priorities for this year's exercise of setting fishing opportunities for 2026. Furthermore, the Council will take note of the progress made on current legislative proposals, including on animal transport, plant reproductive material and new genomic techniques.
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| ● Council of the EU | | | 18/06/2025 15:06 | Press release | | | | | In the context of the ongoing EU cohesion policy’s mid-term review, member states’ representatives (Coreper) agreed today the Council’s negotiating positions aiming to better address current and emerging strategic challenges linked to the economic, social and territorial cohesion. The negotiating mandates cover the Commission proposals amending: - the regulations on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund, as well as on the Just Transition Fund (JTF)
- the regulation on the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+)
The Commission proposals contain targeted amendments to the regulatory framework of the cohesion policy funds to align investment priorities with the evolving economic, societal and geopolitical context, as well as with the EU’s climate and environment objectives. Their main objective is to align cohesion policy investments to new priorities, notably competitiveness and decarbonisation, defence and security, affordable housing, access to water, sustainable water management and water resilience, energy transition and challenges facing Eastern border regions. To this end, they introduce greater flexibility and incentives to facilitate the rapid deployment of resources and accelerate the implementation of the programmes. Council’s negotiating positionsThe Council negotiating mandates reflect the efforts of the presidency to balance concerns related to the budgetary impact of the proposals, particularly on the annual budget for 2026, and the capacity of member states to make concrete use of the incentives provided. The compromise texts are based on the following main elements: - lowering of pre-financing and co-financing rates at the level of priority for all new specific objectives, while also lowering the threshold for additional financial incentives
- lowering the threshold for receiving extra bonuses, such as further pre-financing at programme level and extending by one year the final year of eligibility, with a special view to member states having only one programme
- introducing additional derogations from the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) - the single rulebook of EU funds jointly delivered with member states and regions - on publicity by beneficiaries
- introducing additional provisions concerning flexibilities for member states that comply with the concentration requirements at the level of category of regions
- introducing a new article in each proposal to confirm that commitments suspended by measures adopted in the context of the conditionality regulation cannot be subject to programme amendments or transfers. The same stands for amounts exceeding the flexibility amount and corresponding to the specific objectives negatively assessed by the Commission based on the application of horizontal enabling conditions in the CPR
Moreover, in the case of the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund, as well as the JTF regulations, the text introduces an extension of scope for specific objectives related to energy infrastructure and defence or dual use infrastructure. Next stepsThe presidency will start negotiations with the European Parliament to reach an agreement. Background informationOn 1 April 2025, the Commission published the Communication titled ‘A modernised Cohesion policy: The mid-term review’ alongside two legislative proposals that amend: (i) the regulations on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion Fund and the Just Transition Fund (JTF), and (ii) the regulation on the European Social Fund+. This package takes the opportunity of the ongoing mid-term review of cohesion programmes, which serves to allocate the ‘flexibility reserve’ that corresponds to 50% allocation of all funds for 2026 and 2027, to introduce new priorities that stem from the current geopolitical and economic challenges. The proposals devote special attention to defence and security with a view to competitiveness, Eastern border regions, affordable housing (including social housing), secure access to water, sustainable water management and water resilience, energy transition (decarbonisation), and cities. They envisage financial incentives for those programmes that allocate the flexibility reserve towards any of these priorities (higher pre-financing and up to 100% EU financing). In case the programmes devote at least 15% of their allocation to these priorities, they get extra pre-financing as bonus, and an extension of eligibility by one year (until 31 December 2031). |
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