This week’s EU Omnibus developments
A rundown of who’s been saying what this week, and what more we know about plans to revise Europe’s sustainability rules.
Denmark’s minister for industry, business and financial affairs, Morton Bødskov, stated on Tuesday that the current requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) “hinder the green transition”.
In a statement published by the Danish government, Bødskov welcomed the recent agreement to delay the rules, saying speedy decisions were needed to “secure more green jobs and green investments and strengthen our green competitiveness”.
“Bureaucracy and hassle are getting in the way,” he continued. “That is why we need to clean up. It must be easy for our companies to make the green choice.”
On Wednesday, one of the most important industry bodies in Europe, outlined the changes it will be pushing for during the political negotiations.
REP covered BusinessEurope’s surprising call for a return to risk-based due diligence at the time, as well as its frustration over transition plan requirements.
But it wants a lot more than that, including further changes to the scope of the rules and more cuts to the Taxonomy Regulation. You can read the full document here.
Elsewhere, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published guidelines on how national authorities should supervise sustainability disclosures.
They are intended to shape enforcement measures taken in relation to sustainability information published after January 1st 2025.
National authorities have two months to declare whether they plan to apply the guidelines – something that could be tricky for those in countries where the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is yet to be transposed into national law.
The Commission launched a consultation on revising the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation on Friday.
The law, which requires fund managers to back up their sustainability claims with public information, has been left out of the Omnibus proposal itself but it slated to be overhauled later this year as part of the same simplification agenda.
The Finnish Government has reportedly said the EU Omnibus will reduce companies’ compliance costs under the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) by around €97,500-€115,000 for upfront costs, and up to €72,500 annually thereafter.
The claims were made as part of a position paper, published in Finnish at the end of March.
Meanwhile, Finnish non-profit Pellervo Economic Research PTT published a report on Wednesday suggesting the European Commission has seriously underestimated the cost of complying with the EU Deforestation Regulation.
The research, which included interviews with 25 firms, looked at how much companies would have to spend on working hours, technical investments and training.
It didn’t explore the indirect costs, such as materials getting more expensive as a result of the law.
The paper concluded that the EUDR would cost Finnish companies around €207m in upfront costs and €65m annually thereafter.
The European Commission has previously estimated the average upfront cost of the law would be between €5k and €90k.