From Ambition To Delivery: Making The Omnibus Work
The Omnibus Remains An Important Opportunity
10 June 2026, EU: The EU is increasingly framing its future around innovation and competitiveness. The message is clear: Europe needs to invest more, move faster and ensure that new solutions reach the market.
The Food and Feed Safety Omnibus was intended to support exactly this shift. Done well, it can simplify procedures, reduce bottlenecks, and help farmers access innovation more quickly.
Member States are already facing significant pressure in managing renewal and authorisation procedures, which absorb substantial administrative and scientific capacity. This is precisely why the Omnibus must deliver meaningful, targeted simplification. The goal should be to free up resources so national authorities can focus on new applications, innovation and timely access to solutions for farmers.
As discussions continue in Council, the question is whether the final text will follow that original purpose. The risk is not only that the proposal may fall short of its ambition, but also that it could add complexity where simplification is most needed.
Three issues need urgent attention:
First, simplification must be meaningful. A broad and future-proof definition of biopesticides is essential to ensure that novel technologies can come forward and that Europe does not limit the farmer’s toolbox before it has even had chance to grow. Narrowing the approach to a restrictive biocontrol definition risks excluding promising innovations and limiting the practical benefits of the reform.
Second, changes to data protection must continue to support the investment case for generating the studies needed for authorisations. As set out in recent discussions on the cost of inaction, effective data protection is not a technical detail; it is a key condition for investment, especially in smaller markets, minor uses and specialty crops. Without meaningful protection for the studies required by the EU system, companies have fewer incentives to invest in the evidence needed to bring new products to farmers.
Third, any changes to the MRL framework should be supported by a proper impact assessment. In the short term, the current hazard-based direction could have immediate implications for trade, food supply, third-country partners and EU competitiveness. This needs to be properly assessed before decisions are locked in. In the longer term, the EU also needs to consider whether this approach is consistent with its wider vision for resilient food systems, open trade, innovation and competitiveness.
Innovation needs the right framework
Innovation does not happen automatically. It depends on a system that is predictable, proportionate, and capable of supporting investment. When the framework becomes uncertain, overly complex, or too narrow in scope, innovation slows down or shifts elsewhere.
This is already visible today. Farmers are losing tools faster than new ones are becoming available. The gap between political ambition and practical delivery is growing.
That gap also matters for Member States. If the Omnibus is to deliver in practice, it must help focus limited national resources on new applications, innovation and timely access to solutions for farmers.
A final outcome that lacks ambition would risk reinforcing some of the structural challenges the Omnibus was meant to address.
A framework that does not fully support investment, that does not sufficiently simplify procedures, or that leaves fragmentation untouched will not unlock innovation.
The question is whether the EU can translate its ambition on innovation and competitiveness into concrete regulatory choices.
That means a broad biopesticides definition that enables future technologies. It means a farmer’s toolbox with the potential to grow, not one constrained by an overly limited definition of biocontrol. It means meaningful data protection reform that supports investment in high-quality studies. And it means not advancing far-reaching MRL changes without first understanding their full impact.
The bottom line
There is still time to ensure the Omnibus delivers. But that requires holding onto the original objective: a system that is simpler, more predictable, and better able to bring innovation to farmers in a timely manner.
Anything less risks failing to deliver on the EU’s own priorities.
Europe has set a clear ambition. Now it must ensure that the legislative framework is strong enough to support it.
Because if the Omnibus is not ambitious enough, the cost will not be theoretical. It will be felt in investment decisions, in innovation pipelines, and ultimately in the tools available to farmers.
Also Read: UPL Recognized as Top Innovator in AgriBusiness at Clarivate South Asia Innovation Awards 2026
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