Fabian Bohnenberger

Explaining EU legislative processes involves more than good communication. It’s about identifying what information matters to your counterpart and presenting it in a way that is accessible and relevant to them.

That’s often easier said than done. Personal and institutional preferences vary widely – in both the content people care about and how they prefer to receive it. So, being prepared to adapt your approach and structure information clearly becomes all the more important.

One simple tool that I have developed to help me with this is a dynamic report based on my dataset of EU legislative files – introduced here and here. The report contains some fairly basic but essential information about each legislative initiative such as the type of file, its status in the legislative process and who the responsible Commissioner, Directorate-General, parliamentary committee, and rapporteurs are.

Most importantly, the report is continuously updated and directly links to the legislative texts, procedure page and, where available, the published law. This makes it easy to trace each initiative, understand its current status in context and plan next steps together.

How I keep track of EU simplification files (so you don’t have to)

How does this dynamic report look like? Here is an example focused on the Commission’s recent regulatory simplification packages:

Because these simplification packages bundle together various legislative and non-legislative initiatives, they show the need for clear summaries of complex EU processes.

Quick tip: avoid the term “omnibus files” outside Brussels – no one knows what you’re talking about.

Changes in the numbering and sequencing of these initiatives – for example, the 3rd package on agriculture being added later to existing plans – make it even more important to have regularly updated overviews that reflect the latest developments and ensure everyone is one same page.

So far, there are four omnibus simplification packages, which have reached different stages of the EU legislative process. Without delving into the detail, this is what they aim to do:

1. Sustainability: to push back implementation dates and simplify corporate sustainability reporting, streamline Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
2. Investment: to boost InvestEU Programme and simplify reporting
3. Agriculture: to streamline CAP regulations, payments, and reporting processes
4. Small mid-caps: to extend regulatory exemptions to larger companies, move to digital product documentation, and enable the Commission to create common specifications

Further simplification packages are expected over the coming months (e.g., on defence investment), and my report will be continuously updated to reflect these new announcements.

Let me know if this overview is useful to you – I’m always happy to hear your thoughts. And if you found this helpful, feel free to share the post with others who might benefit from a clearer view of the EU’s simplification agenda.