By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission aims to cut more of the reporting rules criticised by some companies and politicians, as it ramps up efforts to make European industries globally competitive, a draft document showed.
The Commission will publish an overarching plan to boost the European Union’s competitiveness later on Wednesday, setting out a counter-offer for businesses and investors tempted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledges to roll back corporate regulation in the U.S.
An updated draft of the EU competitiveness plan seen by Reuters on Wednesday said the bloc would launch “a series of Simplification Omnibus packages” to cut back and simplify EU regulations. The draft could still change before it is published later in the day.
The first of these packages, due next month, will target “among others” three EU sustainability rules, to simplify the data these policies demand from businesses, the draft said.
“It will notably address the trickle-down effect to prevent smaller companies along the supply chains from being subjected in practice to excessive reporting requests that were never intended by the legislators,” it said.
The three policies being tackled first are the EU’s sustainable finance reporting law, its due diligence rules, and its “taxonomy” defining which investments can be labelled as climate-friendly.
A previous draft of the EU competitiveness plan, reported by Reuters last week, had only mentioned one omnibus package that would cover the three sustainability rules.
EU officials say the bloc’s carbon border tariff is among the policies Brussels is considering adding to next month’s simplification package.
The CO2 levy will start slapping fees on imported steel, cement and other goods next year, but companies importing these commodities are already required to report data to the EU in preparation for the carbon levy’s launch.
The European Union is under pressure from member countries to simplify regulations around doing business. Trump also weighed in on the debate over red tape at the annual Davos meeting of the world’s business elite last week, urging the EU to reduce regulations.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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