The association of European chambers of commerce and industry, Eurochambres, has called on the European Commission to ensure that the future voluntary sustainability reporting standard provides genuine administrative relief for SMEs, according to a working document sent to Agence Europe on Tuesday 9 June. The organisation supports the use of this standard as a reference framework for limiting excessive information requests addressed to small businesses under the CSRD Directive (see EUROPE 13863/21).
However, Eurochambres stresses that uncertainties remain regarding the scheme’s practical application. Large companies subject to reporting obligations will still have to collect data from their suppliers, often SMEs, which could maintain significant pressure on the latter despite the limits set by European legislation.
The association therefore calls on the Commission to ensure that SMEs are effectively protected against excessive requests, while guaranteeing legal certainty for reporting companies when it is impossible to obtain certain data, as well as against requests for information outside the value-chain reporting required by the CSRD.
See the working document: https://aeur.eu/f/m94 (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)