Following months of negotiations in the European Parliament, the amendments to the CSRD proposal have been approved by the JURI committee this Tuesday 15th of March.
Frank Bold is the coordinator of the Alliance for Corporate Transparency, a platform gathering leading civil society organisations that has provided landmark research and evidence-based recommendations for the reform and development of the sustainability disclosure framework in the EU. More recently, we coordinated a multi-stakeholder statement on the need to swiftly implement the CSRD and EU standards as well as a joint letter with investors, asset managers and civil society organisations sent to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) calling to broaden the scope of the legislation
The final vote of the JURI committee has disappointed stakeholders by delaying the application of the new rules an additional year (compared to the initial proposal of the EU Commission), which is problematic from the perspective of EU’s green transition, as well as the urgent need to cut Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels from Russia.
On the upside, the text approved in the JURI committee includes several significant improvements on climate and human rights reporting, and tackles the problematic exemption for large subsidiaries to disclose sustainability information.
The CSRD proposal will now enter into the final phase of the legislative process with trilogue negotiations. As stated by Frank Bold’s Susanna Arus, Communications and EU Public Affairs at Frank Bold:
“An ambitious agreement needs to be reached before summer between co-legislators to avoid further delays. The final CSRD text should incorporate changes proposed by the Parliament that aim to strengthen the quality and relevance of corporate transparency on sustainability matters and dismiss counterproductive proposals that reduce the scope of companies or delay the implementation of a reform key to the transition and resilience of the EU economy”
The European Commission, Parliament and Council reached an agreement for the new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) that clarifies disclosure obligations for large companies and listed SMEs, and mandates the development and adoption of mandatory EU corporate sustainability reporting standards.
The Czech government presented five key priorities it wants to focus on during the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, beginning on 1 July. The priorities include post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, energy security, strengthening European defence and cybersecurity, as well as the resilience of the European economy and of democratic institutions. However, according to Frank Bold experts, there is a lack of emphasis on the green transition - which is crucial for both energy security and economic resilience.
An unprecedented decision was made at the Municipal Court in Prague in the historically first Czech climate litigation, for which Frank Bold Advokáti provided legal expertise.
