Reckless Risk-taking

An evaluation of recent EU legislative proposals on permit-granting and environmental assessments

On 10 December 2025, the Commission published two separate legislative proposals: a Regulation aimed at speeding up environmental assessments (under the Environment Omnibus) and a Directive to accelerate permit-granting procedures (under the Grids Package). Despite being distinct initiatives, they are closely linked, as both would significantly alter national permitting systems across the EU. Taken together, they form part of a broader deregulatory shift that attempts to weaken the applicable environmental legal framework in the EU.

While the stated objective of both proposals is to simplify environmental rules and accelerate decarbonisation, their current drafting goes beyond procedural streamlining. Instead, they introduce substantive changes that would lower existing standards of environmental protection. In particular, they directly and indirectly amend key pillars of EU environmental law, notably the Birds & Habitats Directives and the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. The combined effect of the proposals, alongside other relevant initiatives is significant environmental damage to the EU's biodiversity, as well increased legal uncertainty and administrative burden for national authorities.

Overall, although framed as technical measures to accelerate the green transition, the two proposals together amount to a significant deregulation of EU environmental law and a reduction in the level of environmental protection currently guaranteed under the EU legal order.