ECON adopts report on mitigating measures for small mid-cap enterprises

The European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) has announced it has adopted a draft report on the European Commission's (EC) Omnibus IV legislative proposal, adopted in May 2025. This proposes a Directive amending the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) and the Critical Entities Resilience Directive to simplify various administrative requirements for a new category of "small mid-cap enterprises" (SMCs), in line with the mitigating measures already available for small and medium‑sized enterprise (SMEs). A draft version of the report was published in November 2025. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) seek to define SMCs as companies with fewer than 1,000 employees and either up to EUR200 million in turnover or EUR172m in total assets, while the EC proposes 750 employees, EUR150m in turnover and EUR129m in total assets. ECON also wants to ensure that SME support and the "think small first" principle remain intact and that thresholds are reviewed every five years.

ECON's proposals include: 

• Extending existing SME exemptions from certain General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) record‑keeping obligations to SMCs where processing does not involve high‑risk data. Sensitive data such as biometric, health, religious, political or criminal‑conviction data remain excluded.
• Amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) to define SMCs and enable access to SME growth markets and the benefit of simpler prospectus disclosure rules, in line with the updated Prospectus Regulation.

ECON and the civil liberties committees adopted the amendments with strong majorities and authorised inter‑institutional negotiations, which are expected to begin once the EP plenary gives its approval in March.

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