
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.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that mining at Poland’s sprawling Turów coal mine must cease while the court processes a Czech government lawsuit against Poland for illegally operating the mine. The Polish mine pushes right up to the Czech and German borders and is depleting people’s water supplies and undercutting houses in nearby communities.
Local groups and NGOs including Frank Bold, that is very active in the process, welcomed the Czech government’s decision to file a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against the Polish government for the illegal operation of the Turów lignite coal mine, which has been dug right up to the Czech and German borders, damaging local water supplies for nearby communities. This is the first such legal case for the Czech Republic and the first in EU’s history where one member state sues another for environmental reasons.
Meeting the goal of the European Green Deal to achieve no net GHG emissions by 2050 requires at least half trillion euros of additional investments in the EU every year and will involve significant market and regulatory changes targeting every sector of the economy. This will profoundly change how companies and their directors need to integrate sustainability concerns in their strategies and business decisions.