This week’s EU Omnibus developments

A rundown of who is saying what this week, and what more we know about plans to revise Europe’s sustainability rules

FoodDrinkEurope has become the latest lobby group to urge EU lawmakers to reject current plans to change the nature of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D).

The European Commission’s proposed amendments to the law include limiting due diligence to entities’ own operations and Tier 1 suppliers.

But FoodDrinkEurope wants the Omnibus package to promote a risk-based approach, in which companies must first scope out environmental and social risks “throughout all areas of their business, across their operations and relationships, including in their supply chains” and then use that as the basis for in-depth due diligence.

This approach would prevent firms spending resources assessing every supplier and instead allow them to focus on tackling major problems, the trade body explained in a position paper on the EU Omnibus, published this week.

Besides, it added, “major risks typically occur beyond tier 1 across the value chain”.

The position paper comes as Danish officials reportedly move to defend CS3D against watering down.

An article in Responsible Investor this week claimed the country’s minister for industry, business and financial affairs, Morten Bodskov, wants to maintain the rules.

Senior figures from the French and German governments have both suggested recently that they think CS3D should be abolished.

Denmark’s position is particularly important because it will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union later this month, when Poland’s term is up.

CSRD

On the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), FoodDrinkEurope said the European Sustainability Reporting Standards should be aligned with the International Sustainability Standards Board’s equivalent, including “direct lifts” from the latter when necessary.

“There should not be any assurance obligations for scope 3 data,” it added.

Meanwhile European Parliament has published a paper outlining the amendments its committees on economic affairs and the environment want to make to CS3D and CSRD.

The 987 proposals show how divided MEPs are, with some pushing to protect the original laws, others looking to scrap them, and a raft of requests that sit somewhere in between.

Some want the thresholds for CSRD lowered so that the disclosure requirements capture all companies with more than 500 employees, while others want them hiked to 5,000.

The document is expected to form the basis of negotiations in Parliament next month.