The EU is walking the fine line between simplification and deregulation

The EU has entered its simplification moment. After a decade of head-spinning rulemaking, the European Commission is now applying simplification more directly to financial regulation, all in the name of competitiveness.

However, the real question isn’t whether simplification is needed – it is. The real question is whether what’s being flown under that banner is actually deregulation by stealth.

For months the Commission insisted the Omnibus packages would not chip away at core policy goals. President Ursula von der Leyen put it bluntly on 1 October in Copenhagen: we need simplification and deregulation and the Omnibuses should set the example. Her candour is welcome. But it’s also risky. In short, a semantic hedge just became a political choice.

Smart simplification makes rules workable, reduces compliance costs and speeds up investment. Bad deregulation does the opposite. It blunts the EU’s ability to meet its aims by salami-slicing scope, allowing deadlines to slip or weakening enforcement. Much of the fight over Omnibus sits right on that edge. 

Apostolos Thomadakis is Research Fellow and Head of the Financial Markets and Institutions Unit at CEPS, and Head of Research at ECMI. This commentary was originally published by CEPS on October 13, 2025 and is an expanded version of an op-ed first published by Euractiv on October 7, 2025.