EU MPs approve delay to rights, environment business rules
BRUSSELS
EU lawmakers on Thursday approved a delay to landmark new rules on environmental and human rights supply chain standards, which have faced major pushback since their adoption as too burdensome for businesses.
Concerns about sluggish European growth have shifted the bloc's focus to competitiveness and away from the climate change push of EU chief Ursula von der Leyen's first term, to the alarm of green advocates.
The European Commission in February proposed postponing two sets of rules as step one in a sweeping "simplification" package aimed at cutting red tape and giving businesses more breathing room.
The first text, called the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), requires large firms to give investors and other "stakeholders" information on their climate impacts and emissions, and steps taken to limit them.
The second is the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which demands that large companies fix the "adverse human rights and environmental impacts" of their supply chains worldwide.
Under the so-called stop-the-clock proposal approved with an overwhelming majority by lawmakers on Thursday, the implementation of both sets of rules is to be delayed to help companies better prepare.
Member states had greenlit the delay last month.
Companies required to comply with the CSRD as of 2026 and 2027 will now have until 2028 to do so, while larger firms would get a one-year reprieve on initial implementation of the CSDDD.
Beyond that, the commission is proposing more fundamental changes to both directives.
It wants CSRD rules to apply only to 10,000 larger companies rather than the initial 50,000, effectively sparing 80 percent of the firms originally targeted.
