On Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 February, the European Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification, Valdis Dombrovskis, met with business representatives, NGOs and trade unions to hear their views on the forthcoming ‘omnibus’ proposal, which will simplify existing legislation.
Discussions focused on the three texts likely to be affected by the first ‘omnibus’ initiative: the CSRD, CSDDD directives, and the regulation on the European taxonomy. The key message from the participants was that the current reporting obligations are excessive, redundant and overlap each other, according to a source who took part in the meeting.
Many companies feel that there are too many data points to be completed under the various existing laws. They are calling for a policy based on encouragement, rather than obligation, when it comes to sustainability objectives.
“SMEs in particular are telling us that reporting and compliance obligations are becoming their core business. This acts as a brake on competitiveness. We are therefore encouraged by the fact that the European Commission seems to want to tackle this problem”, said the Director General of Eurochambres, Ben Butters.
Nevertheless, the NGOs and workers’ representatives who took part in the meeting criticised the fact that they were in the minority. According to the Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Isabelle Schömann, “only about a fifth of the participants were representatives of civil society or trade unions”.
The European Commission has not shared the list of participants at the meeting.
Ms Schömann, along with representatives of the NGOs E3G, ShareAction, Friends of the Earth Europe, WWF and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ), regretted the fact that the European Commission had not shared information about the content of the future ‘omnibuses’.
These organisations are also concerned that this meeting will replace a traditional consultation.
The first ‘omnibus’ initiative, due on 28 February, could be delayed, according to a rumour that is currently doing the rounds. Discussions on the scope of the initiative are underway with a number of Commissioners who would like to include other texts in the initiative.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra, announced that as part of the first ‘omnibus’ he wanted to amend the scope of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) so that fewer companies would be subject to it. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)