Despite the provisional political agreement on the Commission's proposal to simplify and strengthen the CO2 border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), the Commission is now pushing ahead with plans to extend the CBAM to downstream products. Affected companies should keep a close eye on this issue.

The German Federal Council is asking the federal government to examine a deposit solution for certain lithium-ion batteries. It is questionable whether the Battery Implementation Act will replace the Battery Act on 18 August 2025.

After an initial debate, the German Bundestag referred the bill to the Environment Committee for further discussion. Prior to this, the Federal Cabinet had approved the draft bill submitted by the Federal Ministry for the Environment for a law to harmonise national law with the EU Batteries Regulation.

Various organisations have filed a complaint with the BAFA against a well-known textile discounter for violations of the German Supply Chain Act. On the other hand, the opposition in the Bundestag has failed with its supply chain initiatives.

In order to adequately safeguard the policy objectives, the mandate ensures that the investigation and assessment obligations are extended if objective and verifiable information indicates that there are negative impacts that go beyond the direct business partners.

Countries such as Austria, where the forest area is growing, would be penalised, while countries with actual deforestation are not classified as high-risk areas. The introduction of a "zero-risk category" is being called for.

The key question is how companies should behave during the transition period, as current law imposes requirements but changes are foreseeable.

Under pressure from the EPP, the EU Commission has suspended the Green Claims negotiations for the time being. However, the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (EmpCo) Directive has already entered into force on 26 March 2024, and its rules must be applied from 27 September 2026.

In future, chemical substances such as those in toys, food and pesticides are to be assessed in a standardised manner. The aim is to recognise risks earlier, reduce the burden on authorities and improve the protection of people and the environment.

The VERE Association welcomes the appointment of Gitta Connemann as the Federal Government's Commissioner for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Today more than ever, SMEs need her hands-on personality, which is always focussed on the matter in hand rather than ideology.

The core element of the Omnibus IV proposal is a postponement of the date of application of the due diligence obligations under the EU Batteries Regulation by 2 years. This time should give those affected the opportunity to prepare themselves better (e.g. with guidelines) or time to set up notified bodies and recognised systems.

In addition to energy consumption, from 20 June 2025 additional information must be provided on drop resistance, ease of repair and protection against water and foreign objects.

The EU Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) rejects simplifications to the CSRD and CSDDD and calls for the existing thresholds for company size to be retained and for almost all proposed changes to be cancelled.

The VERE e.V. expressly welcomes the consideration of the criticism previously expressed by the association regarding the amount of the security deposit for industrial batteries, in addition to the clearly expressed points of criticism. VERE points out, among other things, that the placing of industrial batteries on the market becomes more expensive due to…

The new EU Single Market Strategy focuses on removing the "Terrible Ten", i.e. the ten most harmful barriers reported by businesses, including in particular fragmented rules on packaging, labelling and waste (rank 6) and lack of product compliance (rank 7). Here you will find the most important proposed actions.