Unions slam ‘rigged’ talks on EU plans to streamline sustainability reporting

Trade unions and green groups have renewed their criticism of plans to lighten the regulatory burden on companies as the European Commission wrapped up two days of back-room consultation that they say were heavily weighted in favour of business interests.

The ‘simplification roundtable’ was hosted in Brussels by economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovkis, who had already drawn fire after a leaked participant list showed civil society groups were heavily outnumbered by trade associations and representatives of major corporations.

Today’s talks kicked off with “a lot of disappointment and a lot of frustration” for civil society groups, said Isabelle Schömann, deputy general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, who called the EU executive’s regulatory simplification drive a “deregulation agenda” and the talks a “rigged” roundtable.

Civil society groups are concerned that the Commission, in achieving its promised 25% reduction in the reporting burden for European companies, will have to reopen key directives on corporate sustainability and due diligence for negotiation, potentially leading to a sweeping revision and weaking of the rules.

“If it's a reopening of the directive, everything is on the table,” Schömann said. Some businesses are waiting for the opportunity “to question not only the thresholds, not only the reporting, but of course civil liability, their own obligation to be accountable,” she said.

At a news briefing today, the Commission denied the intention was to re-write a swathe of freshly adopted legislation, but said it and president Ursula von der Leyen consider the simplification drive a top priority.

“It is also a response to the demands of companies, but we have also said clearly that the ultimate objectives of the regulations will not be changed,” the spokesperson said.

The announcement of a forthcoming  ‘omnibus’ package revisiting the corporate sustainability rules had already raised concerns when announced late last year, but the recent publication last month of the Commission’s strategy to boost EU competitiveness revealed it plans a series of similar measures, and a complete review of EU regulation across the board.

A draft of the EU executive’s 2025 work programme, slated for publication on 11 February but leaked earlier this week, showed a further two omnibus proposals are planned before the summer, amongst other measures in its simplification drive.

Maria van der Heide, head of EU policy at the campaign group ShareAction doubted that the European Commission would be able to stick to its pledge to maintain the objectives of the Green Deal that was the flagship agenda of von der Leyen’s first presidency.

“There is a severe risk that the simplification exercise will turn into a dismantling of Europe's sustainability rulebook,” van der Heide said. “In a matter of months, the Commission is rewriting laws that have taken years of democratic debate, evidence and consultation to develop.”

A raft of civil society groups wrote to Dombrovskis and von der Leyen on the eve of this week’s talks warning that the Commission’s efforts to rush through its regulatory reforms “fall short of ensuring a transparent, evidence-based and inclusive policy and law-making process as required by EU law” and may be in breach of the EU treaties.

The EU executive is slated to present its first omnibus package on 26 February, alongside a Clean Industrial Deal intended to drive economic growth and boost competitiveness while maintaining climate action and other environmental goals.