What changed with the 2025 simplification ("Omnibus")?

In February 2025 the Commission proposed simplifying CBAM as part of its Omnibus package. The result is Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 of 8 October 2025, published in the Official Journal on 17 October 2025 and in force from 20 October 2025. Main changes, as described by the Commission and the European Parliament:

• 50-tonne threshold: an importer bringing in 50 tonnes or less of CBAM goods per calendar year (by net mass) does not need authorisation and has no CBAM obligations. This replaced the earlier exemption for goods of negligible value. The Commission expects it to exempt about 182,000 importers, mostly SMEs and individuals, while still covering over 99% of in-scope emissions.
• Not for electricity and hydrogen: importers of these must always be authorised declarants.
• Cliff, not allowance: if an importer goes above 50 tonnes in a year, all CBAM obligations apply to its imports.
• Later deadlines: the annual declaration and surrender moved to 30 September of the following year, and certificate sales start on 1 February 2027.
• Lower quarterly holding: the share of certificates that must be held each quarter is 50%.
• Simpler rules for authorisation, emissions calculation and verification.

The Commission checks the threshold every year. Its assessment published on 30 September 2026 found that, for April 2025 to March 2026, the threshold would exempt 0.87% of embedded emissions, below the 1% limit.

Important for exporters: the 50 tonnes is counted per EU importer, across all its suppliers, not per Indian exporter. A small Indian exporter selling to a large EU importer will still be inside CBAM.