The European Council has today (Monday May 11) given its final green light to new rules on biocides by extending certain data protection periods.

The new regulation forms part of the so-called 'Omnibus X' legislative package in the EU’s simplification agenda.

The package aims to reduce administrative costs and burdens, while maintaining the EU’s strict requirements for food and feed safety, health and environmental protection.

The new regulation aims to improve the functioning of the biocidal products market in the EU, while ensuring a high level of protection for humans and the environment.

Biocidal products are used to protect humans, animals, materials or articles against harmful organisms like pests or bacteria, by the action of the active substances contained in the biocidal product.

Due to delays in the review of existing active substances in biocidal products, the protection period for data generated expired on December 31, 2025.

To ensure fair compensation for data owners, the European Commission had proposed to align the data protection period with the extended review programme until December 31, 2030.

This extension aims to balance stakeholder interests and ensure regulatory fairness, pending a full evaluation of the regulation in 2026-2027, according to the commission.

Next steps

The legislative act will be published in the Official Journal of the EU in the coming days and will enter into force the twentieth day following that of its publication.

In October 2024, the European Council called on all EU institutions, member states and stakeholders, as a matter of priority, to take work forward.

The Budapest declaration of November 2024 subsequently called for ‘launching a simplification revolution’, by ensuring a clear, simple and smart regulatory framework for businesses and drastically reducing administrative, regulatory and reporting burdens, in particular for SMEs.

As a follow-up to the call by EU leaders at that and subsequent meetings, the commission has put forward 10 ‘Omnibus’ packages aiming to simplify existing legislation on:

Sustainability;
Investment;
Agriculture;
Small and mid-caps;
Digitalisation and common specifications;
Defence readiness;
Chemical products;
Digital issues including on artificial intelligence (AI);
Environment;
The automotive sector.

There was also the 10th Omnibus on food and feed safety in December 2025

This initiative follows from a broader political objective of enhancing EU competitiveness, by reducing businesses’ administrative burden and creating more favourable conditions for them to operate in the EU.