Businesses and investors urge EU to preserve ‘meaningful’ CSRD and CSDDD scope

Nearly 200 large businesses and investors are urging EU regulators to preserve the core of CSRD and CSDDD – including their expanded scope – as they finalise the Omnibus sustainability simplification package.
In the latest of many joint statements published by the business community, 196 organisations including EDF, Signify, Ingka Group, Vattenfall, Nokia, Allianz, La Banque Postale Asset Management, Nordea and Triodos Bank warn that the changes currently considered by the EU Council and Parliament risk damaging competitiveness and growth.
The European Council published its position last week and is seeking to lift the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) application threshold to companies of at least 1,000 employees and €450 million in net turnover. For the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Council goes further than the Commission’s original draft, proposing an application threshold of 5,000 employees and €1.5 billion in net turnover.
The European Parliament is yet to finalise its position, but the lead negotiator’s draft position also goes further than the Commission in reducing the scope of CSRD and CSDDD.
CSRD for companies of 500+ employees
For the statement’s signatories, these proposals go too far. To preserve the effectiveness of sustainability regulations, they are asking regulators to maintain requirements for double materiality reporting across all ESG topics, keep the scope of the CSRD to companies with 500 or more employees, uphold the mandate to adopt and implement credible transition plans, and promote risk-based due diligence under the CSDDD.
Günther Thallinger, Member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE, Investment Management, Sustainability, said: “A strong Sustainable Finance framework is essential for global investors. It supports the shift to a sustainable economy and helps deliver the EU Green Deal. We support simplifying the CSRD and CSDDD. At the same time, it’s important to keep the key rules. These ensure companies provide complete and reliable data for investment decisions and transformative actions. Companies must still have a climate transition plan. Companies must take steps in line with the Paris Agreement’s decarbonisation goals. We can achieve effective reporting in an efficient manner.”
Simplify without compromising
In the statement released today (July 1), the companies and investors remind regulators that CSRD and CSDDD are essential for achieving the EU’s sustainability growth and competitiveness goals, and argue that regulatory simplification can be achieved “without compromising on the substance of sustainability rules or their significant benefits for businesses across the EU”.
Carine de Boissezon, Chief Impact Officer at French electric utility company EDF, added: "The EU, thanks to the Green Deal, is ten years ahead in the green industrial revolution. What is at stake is our health, the competitiveness of our businesses, our well-being and our sovereignty. Where there is room for smart simplification, let's tweak the regulation, but we need to stay the course and be proud of it to assert our leadership, our standards, our vision. If not us, who? If not now, when? When there is a will, there is a way!"
Businesses across the EU have repeatedly warned against sustainability deregulation and expressed positive views on CSRD and CSDDD – yet the legislators in favour of the Omnibus continue to argue that these rules place an undue burden on companies.
Member discussion