The French government has proposed reducing the scope of the requirements, EFAMA wants it extended
The EU is set to pare back its ESG reporting requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Last week, the French government submitted a formal proposal delay to delay the directive “to give the necessary time to improve” it, according to the document seen by POLITICO.
It may find the European Commission (EC) obliging, with the latter looking to support significant reductions to CSRD requirements, as reported by Bloomberg. The talks – part of the ‘omnibus initiative’ – are expected to continue until 26 February.
Under the current scope of CSRD, hundreds of ESG metrics must be reported by EU companies with any two of the following:
- more than 250 employees
- more than €25m on the balance sheet
- more than €50m of annual revenue
On Friday, Benjamin Haddad, France’s minister delegate for European affairs, backed the reductions writing on X that “our businesses need simplification, not additional administrative burden.”
Robert Ophele, chair of the French Accounting Standards Authority, has previously suggested reducing the requirements for firms with fewer than 1,000 employees – recommendations likely to be mirrored by the French government.
Disagreeing with the potential paring back of CSRD, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), said: “Sustainability reporting by investee companies guides [asset managers’] sustainable investments and allows them to comply with their own sustainability reporting obligations under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
“Without available CSRD data, asset managers are reliant on ever more expensive ESG data and ratings from third-party providers.”
The development marks another setback to Europe’s ESG movement and comes days after the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative suspended activities following the exit of several high-profile asset managers including BlackRock.
ESG has been in the spotlight since Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election with the Republican threatening to row back on his predecessor’s climate policies.
Source: etfstream.com
