Environmental compliance

What are the latest developments? We’ve picked out some highlights for December 2025:

Batteries: Commission adopts implementing rules for waste reporting
Omnibus 1: European Parliament and Council reach agreement on corporate sustainability rules
SUPD: Commission publishes guidance on litter clean-up costs

Batteries: Commission adopts implementing rules for waste reporting

On 13 November, the European Commission adopted an Implementing Regulation establishing harmonised reporting formats for battery flows across the EU.

The new regulation defines how Member States must report data under the Batteries Regulation – including the amounts of batteries placed on the market and collected, their chemical composition, and recycling and recovery efficiencies.

By introducing standardised formats for both data reporting and quality checks, the regulation aims to improve transparency, ensure consistency across national reporting, and facilitate compliance monitoring.

The templates also cover the recovery of critical raw materials and include a separate reporting obligation for batteries collected via extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes.

The initiative is part of the broader implementation of the Batteries Regulation, which entered into force in 2023 and introduces ambitious circularity and sustainability requirements for portable, industrial, and electric vehicle batteries placed on the EU market.

Omnibus 1: European Parliament and Council reach agreement on corporate sustainability rules

On 9 December, negotiators from the European Parliament and Council reached a political agreement on the European Commission’s Omnibus I package to streamline corporate sustainability rules.

The deal covers key amendments to both the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

The agreement removes the obligation for companies to draw up climate transition plans.

On CSDDD, the co-legislators confirmed that due diligence obligations will only apply to very large companies with more than 5,000 employees and a net turnover of €1.5 billion. This narrows the scope considerably compared to the current rules, which apply from 1,000 employees.

On CSRD, negotiators agreed to limit the mandatory reporting obligations to companies with at least 1,000 employees and an annual turnover of €450 million. The Parliament had previously supported a higher threshold of 1,750 employees.

The agreement was presented to Member State ambassadors on 10 December and is scheduled to be put to a vote by the European Parliament’s committee and plenary on 11 and 16 December.

SUPD: Commission publishes guidance on litter clean-up costs

On 24 October, the European Commission published long-awaited technical guidance to support Member States in calculating clean-up and waste management costs under the EPR obligations of the Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD).

The non-binding guidance is intended to harmonise implementation across the EU and provide clarity on how producers should contribute to litter-related costs.

The document outlines two methodological approaches to quantify litter attributable to single-use plastics:

• an input-based approach, which uses market data and littering rate estimates, and
• an output-based approach, based on sampling studies of litter composition

Member States are advised to calculate clean-up costs based on at least one of three metrics (weight, volume, or number of items) while recognising that different plastic items may incur significantly different costs depending on the method used.

In scope are costs linked to the collection, transport, and treatment of littered items, including food containers, cups, wrappers, wet wipes, and lightweight plastic bags.

Municipalities are encouraged to include data on staff time, equipment, infrastructure cleaning, and disposal.

While the Commission acknowledges that precise identification of branded litter is difficult, producers are expected to cover costs in proportion to their market share.