Domestic political opportunism and foreign anti-competitive pressure threaten to dismantle one of its biggest advantages. Read below a brief summary of our conference on sustainability and competitiveness held last January 2025 in Brussels.
Our Frankly Speaking conference offered a space this January for an honest and constructive discussion on competitiveness and sustainability, including key options for meaningful simplification in the announced Omnibus.
As Filip Gregor (Head of the Responsible Companies section at Frank Bold) highlighted in his introduction, we are living in a much more problematic geopolitical context than in 2019:
In this environment, Europe’s safety and autonomy is at stake. The EU’s competitiveness strategy must:
MEP Lara Wolters in her powerful opening remarks stressed that in the face of these geopolitical challenges, European leaders must focus on delivering prosperity while avoiding a race to the bottom in social and environmental standards. The CSRD and CSDDD are important tools to ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of businesses.
While implementation is likely to pose some challenges which should be addressed, backtracking would be unhelpful, penalise companies that have proactively prepared as well as damage the credibility of the EU.
Speakers at the conference emphasized critical priorities to EU leaders for future work on sustainability policy:
Sustainability is a competitive advantage and a growth opportunity as pointed out by Mario Draghi. In the Digital Age, sustainability and ESG data are key for long-term success. They also represent a rare chance for the EU's digital economy.
Raising thresholds to exclude tens of thousands of EU companies from the ESG framework won’t improve competitiveness.
For businesses to harness the sustainability advantage, they need a legal framework and standards for sustainability reporting, legal certainty, clear guidance and less emphasis on compliance.
To make CSRD implementation easier, companies would most benefit from a gradual timeline for implementation and audit, and review of the EU reporting standards in the light of first reporting experience of very large listed companies.
The Frank Bold expert group continues its long-term support for Ukraine in 2026. As the fourth year of Russian aggression draws to a close, Frank Bold is sending another financial contribution to support the country’s defenders through the Ukrainian foundation Come Back Alive.
The European Union is sending a clear signal: climate policy is no longer just an environmental vision. It is becoming a core pillar of economic strategy. The latest State of the Energy Union 2025 and Climate Action Progress Report 2025 confirm that competitiveness is now Brussels’ top priority. In this framework, decarbonisation is positioned as a tool to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty, stability, and energy affordability.
With the final revision of the CSRD landing only in mid-December, many companies spent 2025 navigating a moving goal post. Yet despite the uncertainty, some clear lessons have emerged from those already reporting under the new rules. So what did companies actually struggle with, and what did they take away from the experience?
