A letter signed by 362 civil society organisations (CSOs) has called on the European Parliament and Council to reject amendments seeking to weaken crucial due diligence reporting rules under the Commission’s omnibus proposal. The omnibus, unveiled at the end of last month, looks to reduce the sustainability reporting burden for companies by modifying the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the EU’s taxonomy for sustainable activities. The letter argued that discussion of the CSDDD should be “strictly limited” to interpretative measures, such as guidance and delegated acts, with the text of the law itself not being subject to any revisions. On CSRD, the statement suggested that the Parliament and Council should lower the thresholds of in-scope companies and give mid-sized companies a proportionate standard, but that limitations on data requests should be reworked. This proposed standard looks set to emerge in the form of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group’s Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for non-listed Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, widely referred to as the VSME. “The publication by the European Commission of its omnibus proposal revising key corporate sustainability laws sends a clear political signal: President Ursula von der Leyen is deprioritising human rights, workers’ rights and environmental protections for the sake of dangerous deregulation,” the letter read. “The Council and Parliament must urgently show leadership by blocking this damaging proposal, as it is jeopardising the very objectives of these laws and undermines not only the EU’s commitment towards its green ambitions and protection of human rights but also its credibility as a reliable law maker.”
