With 525 votes in favour, 60 against and 28 abstentions, the European Parliament approved on Thursday 10 November in plenary session the agreement with the Council of the European Union on corporate non-financial reporting (‘CSRD’) (see EUROPE 12983/34).
“Europe is showing the world that it is possible to ensure that finance (...) does not govern the entire global economy”, said the text’s rapporteur, Pascal Durand (Renew Europe, French), during the debate the day before.
For him, this text constitutes “an extremely significant change of our vision for companies and the role of companies in society”.
Lídia Pereira (EPP, Portuguese) expressed support for the text: “We feel that productive investments are needed to finance the green transition and we are committed to this green transition”.
Pierfrancesco Majorino (S&D, Italian) said that corporate sustainability reporting is a “lever to improve corporate engagement”. “Transparency is the first step towards a new way of doing business”, he stressed.
French MEPs Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA) and Manon Aubry (The Left) welcomed the text, referring to the false claims made by the oil company Total regarding its CO2 emissions. “The lies of the multinationals have gone on too long, we demand more than words, we demand action”, argued Ms Aubry, asserting the need to continue work on this matter.
For Gilles Lebreton (ID, French) and Raffaele Stancanelli (ECR, Italian), the exemption of small and medium-sized enterprises from the reporting obligations and the inclusion of non-European companies were decisive in their approval of the text.
The European Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, has assured that the Commission will pay close attention to the issue of proportionality for SMEs when the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) submits its proposals for standards.
Furthermore, she recalled that the information provided will have to be verified, an approach that will generate confidence for investors.
“EU standards must take account of global standards, including the standards currently being developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board, the ISSB”, she said (see EUROPE 13012/20). The issue of aligning European standards with global standards had indeed raised concerns in the private sector (see EUROPE 12989/1).
EFRAG is expected to provide the Commission with the first draft standards in mid-November.
See text of the directive : https://aeur.eu/f/40l (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)