EU approves Omnibus changes to CBAM

On 29 September 2025, the European Council formally approved changes to the CBAM Regulation first proposed by the EU commission in their Omnibus I legislative package in February 2025**.** With this, all three EU bodies (commission, parliament & council) have agreed on enacting a number of amendments to the original CBAM Regulation (EU 2023/956).

The legislative act still has to be published in the EU's official journal and will then come into force on the third day after its publication. This is expected to happen in the coming days.

Among other changes, these amendments aim to reduce administrative burdens, smooth cash-flow impacts, and provide greater flexibility and clarity for importers navigating the transition into the definitive CBAM regime.

Motivation for Omnibus Simplification

The initial CBAM design was ambitious and climate-rigorous but faced criticism for being overly complex and burdensome, especially for smaller companies.

1. Administrative burden & complexity – Reporting embedded emissions, verifying data, and using the CBAM Registry created heavy operational demands for importers.
2. Cash-flow / working capital stress – The requirement to pre-purchase and hold 80% of CBAM certificates tied up significant working capital.
3. Data uncertainties & verification constraints – Immature supply-chain emissions data made accurate reporting difficult, prompting the need for flexibility through default or prior-year values.
4. Encouraging participation & fairness – Policymakers aimed to make compliance feasible for smaller importers to maintain fairness and broad participation.

In short: retain CBAM’s climate integrity, but ease the pain of implementation.

What has changed?

Below is a comparative breakdown of key changes introduced by the Omnibus I amendments. Use this as a quick reference.

What’s next

• The legislative act is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union by the end of October 2025, after which the amendments will automatically enter into force on the third day following publication.
• The definitive phase of CBAM will begin in January 2026, marking the transition from the current reporting-only period to the full compliance regime.
• Importers will be required to surrender CBAM certificates covering all imports of CBAM-regulated goods from 2026 by February 2027.