EPP Group manages to avoid heavy red tape

Today, representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council reached an agreement on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). “This deal is a success for the EPP Group. We managed to avoid heavy red tape for European companies”, said Daniel Buda MEP, who negotiated the file on behalf of the EPP Group.

The agreement foresees that sustainability and financial reports mustn’t be audited separately. “We have pushed for this from the very beginning. A common audit will save our European businesses a lot of money. In these difficult times caused by the pandemic, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, we mustn’t burden them further”, stated Buda.

Furthermore, the EPP Group has successfully fought off attempts to extend the reporting obligations to all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The agreement now foresees that only listed SMEs fall under the scope, having the possibility to opt-out until 2028. “Reporting standards can be useful in order to create a level playing field for all businesses and their access to financing. However, these standards must be achievable in terms of time and content. Moreover and most importantly, they need to provide an added value to every company measuring and reporting them. This is why we fought for two additional years when it comes to the application in order to give businesses more time to adapt to the new legislation”, Buda concluded.

The CSRD will replace the current Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). It will oblige companies with more than 250 employees to report annually on their contribution to climate protection goals, e.g. how much CO2 they are saving or what they are doing to prevent deforestation.