Brussels, 11 December 2025 – Commenting on the publication of the Environmental Omnibus by the EU Commission, VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann said:

•    ‘We expressly support the Environmental Omnibus – it contains many good proposals that can bring real relief to industry. In particular, the abolition of the SCIP database for chemical substances is a liberating move for small and medium-sized industrial enterprises! Five years of bureaucracy without any significant added value are now over. The task now is to continue consistently along the path we have taken.’

•    ‘The rules on producer responsibility must be uniform across the EU. For companies, this responsibility means that they are responsible for the environmentally friendly design, use and disposal of their products throughout their entire life cycle. Different national requirements for registration, fees and deadlines cause immense administrative burdens and weaken companies.’

•    ‘Small and medium-sized industrial companies need a uniform, digital EU reporting portal for all circular economy requirements! Instead of a patchwork of national systems and parallel reporting obligations, a uniform approach is needed – with harmonised formats, deadlines and automated data transfer. This reduces bureaucracy, increases transparency and strengthens competitiveness.’

•    ‘The Environmental Omnibus has not simplified or streamlined the existing rules on sustainability reporting and recycling and reuse of critical raw materials. Instead of providing much-needed relief, the new RESourceEU package leads to additional reporting obligations and detailed requirements – in practice, this means more bureaucracy instead of less.

VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann

 The VDMA represents 3600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 870 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.