“Unions slam ‘rigged’ talks on EU plans to streamline sustainability reporting”

The EU executive’s new focus on boosting the global competitiveness of European companies is causing alarm among civil society groups who sense a caving in to demands for deregulation.

Trade unions and green groups have renewed their criticism of plans to lighten the regulatory burden on companies as the European Commission wrapped up two days of back-room consultation that they say were heavily weighted in favour of business interests.

The ‘simplification roundtable’ was hosted in Brussels by economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovkis, who had already drawn fire after a leaked participant list showed civil society groups were heavily outnumbered by trade associations and representatives of major corporations.

Today’s talks kicked off with “a lot of disappointment and a lot of frustration” for civil society groups, said Isabelle Schömann, deputy general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, who called the EU executive’s regulatory simplification drive a “deregulation agenda” and the talks a “rigged” roundtable.

Civil society groups are concerned that the Commission, in achieving its promised 25% reduction in the reporting burden for European companies, will have to reopen key directives on corporate sustainability and due diligence for negotiation, potentially leading to a sweeping revision and weaking of the rules…