Brussels plans sweeping cuts to EU’s green rules, leaked bill reveals

The eagerly anticipated proposal will be a relief to many businesses worried about having to meet complicated green reporting standards, many of which they complain are overlapping and require major investment to ensure compliance.

But green and center-left groups are likely to oppose many of the changes, setting up a fight in the European Parliament and among member countries.

“If confirmed, this is reckless,” Maria van der Heide, head of EU policy at NGO ShareAction, said on Saturday. “Sustainability laws designed to tackle the most pressing crises — climate breakdown, human rights abuses, corporate exploitation — are being crossed out behind closed doors and at record speed. This is not simplification, it’s pure deregulation.”

The details

Expected on Feb. 26, the omnibus bill aims to simplify three of the bloc’s major green rules affecting businesses: the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD), which forces companies to report on their impact on the environment and their exposure to climate risk; the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD), which requires them to investigate and address human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chain abuses; and the EU taxonomy, which defines what counts as a sustainable investment.

The bill is also expected to include changes to the carbon border tax, though this was not confirmed in the leaked section of the bill.

According to the leaked draft, the Commission suggests making eight changes to the due diligence rules to significantly water them down, including asking businesses only to look at their direct suppliers and not further along their supply chains.