The European Commission must go further than it has announced so far to reduce bureaucracy, according to the EPP. The group’s leaders met in Berlin on 17 and 18 January, where they adopted a declaration on the EU’s competitiveness and the need to reduce the bureaucratic burden for the continent’s businesses. In the three-page document, EPP members welcome the Commission’s plans, such as the ‘omnibus’ initiative to be presented at the end of February, but they call for the effort to be broadened: “We demand a revision of the legislation yet to be implemented, including delegated and implementing acts, and the rigorous implementation of the “one in, two out” principle”.
The EPP agrees with the European Commission that this involves the directives on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDDD), as well as the European taxonomy regulation. However, it continues in this vein by also targeting the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
These four texts should be put on hold for at least two years. “In that time, an ‘omnibus’ regulation should limit the scope of these laws to the largest companies with more than 1000 employees, eliminate the indirect effect to SMEs, align legislative overlaps that currently lead to double reporting and significantly reduce the reporting obligations for large companies by at least 50%”, argue the authors of the statement.
More generally, they warn against European climate policies that could harm competitiveness if not properly implemented, according to them.
The automotive sector, for its part, needs relief measures, at a time when some European companies are struggling to meet the 2025 CO2 emissions targets.
See the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/f3w (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)