Update: 6:58 p.m., January 20, clarification from Stéphane Séjourné’s office
After strong calls from the French and then German governments for a strong review of sustainability reporting regulations and the duty of vigilance, the executive vice president of the European Commission, responsible for prosperity and industrial strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, announced that the omnibus law responsible for this revision would contain a « suppression du reporting“. An error alerts many companies engaged in ecological and social transformation.
On February 26, a somewhat unusual law will be unveiled by the European Commission. This so-called “omnibus” law is in fact called upon to revise several texts resulting from the European Green Deal and intended to align company strategies with decarbonization objectives. Among the regulations targeted: sustainability reporting (CSRD), the European duty of vigilance and the green taxonomy.
For several months, these have been attacked for their complexity and cumbersomeness by employers, whose arguments were taken up by the French and then German governments. After a request for a moratorium made by former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, the omnibus law should ultimately make it possible to simplify this legislation without affecting the values of sustainability and fairness which guide the Green Deal according to information collected by the specialized media Responsible Investors . Without much more explanation.
Find out more: CSRD, the battle has only just begun
A massive simplification shock: the elimination of reporting
But on January 20, the executive vice-president of the European Commission, responsible for prosperity and industrial strategy, Stéphane Séjourné dropped a new “bomb”. In an interview on France Inter, he assures that the omnibus will offer a “massive simplification shock”. “We are keeping the climate objectives but we are changing the path of companies to get there with the elimination of reporting”, he says there. A shock announcement which was however nuanced a few hours later: “We are not returning to the objectives of the CSRD but only to certain reporting obligations”, assured the team of the European Commissioner West Francealso explaining to L'Opinion that the formula had been “overinterpreted”.
In the meantime, the announcement made Martin Richer, a keen expert on these regulations and director of the Executive Master's Trajectoires Dirigeants at Sciences Po and head of the business, work and employment center at Terra Nova, jump. Because “keeping the climate objectives without the CSRD makes no sense! This is the metric system of the responsible company. This is what will allow companies to go beyond simple rhetoric by working on climate transition plans! »underlines the expert joined by Youmatter.
For him, the Draghi report on competitiveness which formalized this request for simplification had a “considerable impact the extent of which we have not properly measured in France“. But one “a new step has been taken with a hardening of positions since the hospitalization of Ursula Von Der Leyen. And there aren't many MPs left to defend sustainability regulations for businesses“, he laments.
-Find out more: New paths to European decarbonization according to the Draghi report
A bonus for bad students
By removing the CSRD, it is a step backwards which would take place with serious consequences for French companies, underlines Martin Richer. Because it is then the NFRD which would apply, a regulation – unlike the CSRD – overtransposed by France and which would therefore restore a competitive disadvantage to French companies.
“The Commission underestimates the disastrous effect of the procrastination bonus”adds the expert. In fact “financial and CSR directors who internally have put all their weight behind COMEX to implement CSRD in their company will find themselves disadvantaged and ridiculed”fears Martin Richer. This is also essentially what large companies – Ferrero, L’Occitane Group, Nestlé, Unilever and Primark – are saying in an open letter sent to the Commission. They point in particular to the “investments” already carried out for the preparation of reporting legislation such as the CSRD and the CSDDD. And ask not to modify in depth these texts born in pain after multiple negotiations between the parties.
“Simplify the CSRD without giving up its ambitions”
For their part, companies engaged in ecological and social transformation are also coming back to the Commission to request “Let’s simplify without giving up our ambitions”. A few weeks ago, at the initiative of the Impact France Movement, 11 networks (CJD, B Lab France, CEC, Fair, Community of companies with a mission, etc.) asked their SME and ETI members to share their feelings and feedback. experiences facing the CSRD.
This resulted in a plea for the CSRD “which constitutes a strategic lever to strengthen the competitiveness of the European Union, resolutely committed to the construction of a sustainable economic model”. However, “its implementation reveals operational complexities which, without adjustments, risk compromising its effectiveness for companies, in particular for certain SMEs and ETIs”underline these networks today in a press kit.
Among the requests for simplification brought by the Impact France Movement to the Commission in a specific letter: transitional exemptions for two years for the smallest companies which were until then not concerned by the DPEF, a concentration on indicators “promoting the valuation and comparability of companies’ ESG performances”by favoring quantitative and semi-narrative indicators as well as clarifying the scope of audits, one of the big black spots identified with the latest feedback from companies. Adjustments aimed at better “proportionality” but who does not “must not affect the requirements already in force for large companies”assures Youmatter Malo Bourel Weeger, head of public affairs for the Impact France Movement.
Illustration : Canva
