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A pragmatic Omnibus Simplification Package to put the EU at the forefront of corporate sustainability while ensuring the competitiveness of businesses.

Date

Wed, 02/05/2025

Sections

Competition

FIEC calls for

  • A harmonised sustainable finance and reporting framework, as a cornerstone of European competitiveness, supporting a level playing field and promoting innovation
  • Making sustainable finance more attractive
  • Modifying “transitional” activities to reward renovation projects
  • Significantly reducing the complexity of DNSH criteria
  • Harmonising the CSRD and CS3D thresholds
  • Limiting the trickle-down effect along the value chain for SMEs
  • Establishing a trust-based policy approach
  • Reducing the number of ESRS data points
  • Imposing a “tell-us-once” principle and establish a One-Stop Shop (OSS)
  • Limiting due diligence obligations to direct suppliers (tier 1)

At the heart of the European Green Deal lies the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). They play their role in achieving the EU Green Deal’s ambitious sustainable environmental objectives while preventing greenwashing. However, bureaucratic and overly complex administrative burdens for corporations as well as for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must be addressed properly. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen publicly committed herself and the whole College of Commissioners to ensure that existing rules are fit for purpose, to focus on reducing administrative burdens, and to simplify legislation. The set targets are:

  • Reduce reporting obligations by at least 25 percent
  • Reduce reporting obligations by at least 35 percent (for SMEs)

Europe is facing a competitiveness crisis2, with huge bureaucratic burden and access to finance being one of the main issues for businesses. Streamlining and simplifying the three above- mentioned pieces of legislation with the goal of integrating them into one harmonised framework is a promising approach. Balancing incentives for companies to invest in sustainable and climate- friendly activities with an appropriate level of detail when it comes to reporting is key. It ensures a successful long-term approach to sustainability for companies and our European economy.

The European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) calls on the Commission to take a pragmatic, legally sound and efficient approach to corporate sustainability. Particular attention must be paid to usability and the need to reduce the complexity of the sustainable finance framework. The financing needs of SMEs must be addressed appropriately, as the transition will not function without them. FIEC welcomes the announcement of a first Omnibus Simplification Package (OSP) with a focus on rapidly reducing reporting obligations by changing the Taxonomy Regulation, the CSRD and the CS3D. However, future omnibus packages must, among others, also address the simplification of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

Construction is the second largest industrial ecosystem in the European Union in economic terms, employing over 12 million people. As a result, it offers enormous potential to contribute to the EU Green Deal. The construction ecosystem is called to deliver building renovations faster than ever before and install renewable energy generation and management systems to help Europe use energy sustainably. In addition, the industry must continually provide monitoring and maintenance services, repair to critical infrastructure, and efforts to make buildings safer and more accessible. Construction must also play its part in the general effort to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and other environmental goals.

The following table presents an overview of the exposure of the construction sector in terms of reporting and access to finance. It gives specific examples and insights from a company/SME perspective and can help the legislator in putting forward a pragmatic Omnibus Simplification Package (OSP) that maintains the EU at the forefront of corporate sustainability while ensuring the competitiveness of businesses.

Full position paper here

 

 

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