
After three months of rushed decision-making, the European Commission presented its Omnibus Simplification Package and proposed major rollbacks to the EU’s corporate sustainability legislation, threatening to undermine Europe's leadership in sustainable business practices and ESG reporting.
“With the Omnibus proposals, the EU Commission not only proposes a step backwards, but it also undermines Europe's competitive advantage in the green transition", said Filip Gregor, Head of Frank Bold’s Responsible Companies Section. “ESG data is critical in addressing the challenges EU business will be facing - from decarbonisation to digitalisation and harnessing AI to build up resilience. Blind deregulation will harm the EU economy in the long-term, and will especially punish those companies leading on the sustainability transition.”
“The proposed changes to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) would effectively dismantle the law before it's even started to apply, without presenting any proper evidence" said Julia Otten, Senior Policy Officer at Frank Bold. "Addressing crucial issues like child labour and forced labour requires targeted oversight beyond direct business partners in the value chain. It is absurd that the Commission is proposing to limit this. The sudden shift appears to prioritise short-term industry pressures over long-term sustainability goals and the protection of human rights.”
EU green finance efforts will take a major hit, because banks and investors will not have the data they need to make informed decisions. The European Banking Authority just published a few days ago a report warning against the data gaps "Granular and comparable data that will become available based on fully implemented CSRD is expected to allow significant advancements for corporate exposures in the coming years". With the moratorium on the CSRD and changes to the scope, not only is the EU Commission slowing down green finance, but it is also leading to misdirection of green finance towards supporting business as usual.
Frank Bold urges the European Commission and EU Member States to maintain its commitment to robust sustainability reporting and due diligence frameworks, ensuring European businesses remain competitive in an increasingly sustainability-focused global economy.
The Omnibus Simplification Package will now be handed over to the co-legislators, the EU Parliament and the EU Council, which will each have to formulate a position on the proposed texts in the upcoming months.
Whilst the European Parliament and the Council are in the midst of analysing and debating the Omnibus Simplification Package, we suggest our key changes for the co-legislators to implement to ensure that the CSRD is respected.
Following the European Commission’s announcement of its Omnibus Simplification Package at the end of February, both the Council and the European Parliament must now reach their own positions on the proposals, before the trilogue negotiations between all three bodies commence again.
At the end February, we exposed how the European Commission’s recently announced Omnibus proposals intend to modify corporate sustainability due diligence, reporting and taxonomy and how it will influence the effectiveness of these key legal frameworks.