On Wednesday 22 January, BusinessEurope, the body that represents large companies in the EU, published a report containing proposals for measures to reduce the bureaucratic burden of no fewer than 68 pieces of European legislation. This includes legislation that is often mentioned in debates on regulatory burden: the directives on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and on corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDDD), as well as the platform work directive, the regulation against imported deforestation (EUDR), legislation on posted workers, and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
BusinessEurope is proposing a number of practical solutions with regard to the latter regulation, including raising the threshold for application of the text, which is currently set at imports of more than €150. Another suggestion is to allow companies to submit their CBAM certificates every six months, rather than every three months.
With regard to due diligence, the organisation is calling for Member States not to be able to go further than the requirements of the directive when transposing it. It also says the Commission should also ensure that the text’s obligations do not overlap with other directives, such as the one on industrial emissions or on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD).
Another telling example: the business representative association believes that the proposed regulation on late payments should be abandoned. The current framework is sufficient and the problems encountered (non-compliance with a contract’s payment terms) can be dealt with by means of flanking measures, according to the authors of the report.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/f5v (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)