The EACB welcomes the opportunity to participate in the Commission’s initiative as part of the Omnibus simplification package on sustainability reporting and due diligence. We support the Commission’s objective to make the framework simpler and more cost-effective for companies, by making certain requirements more flexible and reducing the amount of data to be provided, with a view to balancing EU environmental goals with business competitiveness.
With reference to the proposed Article 4(1a – e), whilst we generally agree with the simplification of the way in which information is presented, we do note that the underlying data in order to get to these templates is not fundamentally different from what is currently required to populate the current key templates, and therefore brings nothing in the way of relief of the perceived administrative burden towards companies in scope of the Taxonomy Regulation and view this more as a window-dressing exercise rather than a meaningful change.
We note that with respect to revisions to the applicable technical screening criteria and the overall challenge of operationalizing of the Taxonomy framework, no meaningful progress is made and anxiously anticipate further publications that specifically target this (along the views of the Platform on Sustainable Finance’s report on simplifying EU Taxonomy and improving its usability, which remain unaddressed in the Omnibus proposal).