“I would have rather not been here,” Dutch socialist MEP Lara Wolters said this week, addressing a room full of businesspeople and investors from companies like Unilever, Philips and Dutch asset manager Robeco.
They had gathered in the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam for an event hosted by Dutch liberals, the EU political group Renew, and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats, on Monday (30 June).
The aim: to nudge green(er) businesses into speaking out against the wave of deregulation now rolling through Brussels under the banner of ‘simplification’.
While the goal may be “well-intentioned,” Wolters said the European Commission’s Omnibus package to roll back key green and ethical supply chain reporting rules has become politicised.
“It’s cynical and disappointing,” she added, because “killing these rules or rendering them toothless relies on a far-right majority.”
What started in 2023 with a conservative push to derail the nature restoration law and the 2035 combustion engine ban (both of which failed, for now) has since morphed into an anti-sustainability “culture war like it has in the US.”
“The Berlaymont has become the de facto European People’s Party [EPP] headquarters,” she said, referring to the commission’s headquarters — which is meant to stand above party politics.
And with conservatives dominating both the council and parliament, there’s little to stop the “mad rush” to scrap green laws that have barely taken effect.
'The Berlaymont has become the de facto European People’s Party [EPP] headquarters'
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) only came into force in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Reporting under the latter has yet to officially begin, but the latest council and parliament proposals will reduce the scope to only apply to a tiny fraction (1,000 companies) originally envisioned.
“It's like picking a new colour for the living room we’ve only just renovated," Wolters pointed out.
Wolters, formerly the parliament’s lead negotiator on the EU’s CSDDD, said the rollback of the law she helped push through — just a year after adoption and before it has even entered into force — is “enough to make you emotional.”
“Cutting back on rules is a cynical and disappointing response,” she said. “Killing these rules, or rendering them toothless, relies on the far-right majority. It’s dangerous, but it’s being embraced in Brussels.”
The deregulation push is not limited to the EU’s ethical and sustainability reporting standards. In recent weeks it has spread to the bloc’s corporate anti-greenwashing rules, the AI Act, data protection, the Minimum Wage Directive, deforestation, forever chemicals, the 2040 climate target, and more.
“Sustainability is not a nice-to-have, but essential,” Wolters warned. “Some businesses may feel they cannot speak out — politics and business don’t always mix well — but now we really need them to. It’s no longer just about reporting rules, but about sustainability as a goal in itself.”
In a debate on Dutch radio hosted earlier on Monday (30 June) conservative MEP Dirk Gotink (previously EPP president Manfred Weber’s spokesperson, and seen as one of the main driving forces behind deregulation in parliament), accused Wolters of “making light” of Europe’s competitiveness problem.
“The US is massively deregulating,” he said, implying that the EU should follow suit or lose businesses to other environs.
Wolters later described his remark as empty sloganeering. “We need adult dialogue, not PR slogans,” she said.
In 2024 a global survey by PwC suggested companies expect the EU’s sustainability reporting rules to deliver “tangible business benefits.”
A survey of 1,800 professionals shows 61 percent of firms prefer current green reporting rules, with only 25 percent backing the commission’s simplification plans.
In an open letter published Tuesday, nearly 200 groups — including over 150 businesses and investors — urged the EU to keep its sustainable finance rules intact.
These surveys don’t fully capture the mixed feelings about EU reporting rules.
“Reporting takes so much effort, it’s so complex, and it pulls a lot of brainpower away from action,” said Hedwig Sietsma, global sustainability director at geo-survey company Fugro, during a panel discussion later at the event.
But since green reporting and ethical supply chain rules are still new (the latter has yet to come into full force) the (competitiveness) benefits are only just becoming clear, proponents say.
“Companies that understand their impact are better able to compete in the marketplace, which is important at a time when competitiveness is top of the agenda, also financially,” said Bastian Buck, chief standards officer at the sustainable non-profit Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
“Simplification can make sense; we can refine what we have, but we need to do so without undermining them,” Wolters added.
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Wester is a journalist from the Netherlands with a focus on the green economy. He joined EUobserver in September 2021. Previously he was editor-in-chief of Vice, Motherboard, a science-based website, and climate economy journalist for The Correspondent.
Wester is a journalist from the Netherlands with a focus on the green economy. He joined EUobserver in September 2021. Previously he was editor-in-chief of Vice, Motherboard, a science-based website, and climate economy journalist for The Correspondent.