German conservatives query EU green reporting rules in call to cut bureaucracy

EU environmental reporting rules cause an administrative burden for companies and should be measured against the burden they would cause each time they are adopted, a plan to curb costs and bureaucracy for companies presented by German conservatives reads.

As the German economy is predicted to grow only minimally or not this year, conservative parties CDU and CSU (European People’s Party) propose reducing the administrative burden for companies.

“Excessive documentation, reporting and storage obligations, long procedures and enforcement problems in authorities slow down our economy,” Julia Klöckner, former agriculture minister and spokesperson of parliamentary group CDU/CSU for economic affairs, said in a statement.

The conservative group submitted last week a 22-point plan that also points to the EU level.

“At the European level, too, regulation and bureaucracy are increasing more and more,” Klöckner told EURACTIV.

According to the conservative parties, new reporting obligations for companies should ensure other obligations are lifted. This “must also be applied more consistently in Europe,” Klöckner said.

In times of crisis, in particular, all burdens created by national and EU-level rules should be scrutinised, according to the motion that calls for a so-called “burden TÜV” – an expression based on the association that regularly inspects cars and other goods.

As examples of EU legislation, the parliamentary motion also cited the EU Green Taxonomy, Sustainability Reporting and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) – a directive that aims to hold companies accountable for human rights abuses and environmental violations in their value chain that is set to be adopted by Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee Tuesday.

“The goal must be to avoid higher costs, more bureaucracy, more compliance and risk management or restrictions of flexibility in the current situation, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises,” Klöckner also said.

In the European Parliament, the push was met with headwinds.

“A ‘burden TÜV’ is ultimately nothing more than a political attack on the sustainability goals of the EU Supply Chain Act [CSDDD] and the Taxonomy, which CDU/CSU dislikes,” Tiemo Wölken, a German MEP and environment coordinator of centre-left S&D group, told EURACTIV.

“Of course, rules have to be proportionate, but ensuring this proportionality is a core task of the legislator, there is no need for a new body for this,” he added.

(Jonathan Packroff | EURACTIV.de)

Read more with Euractiv

Centrist MEP fumes after EU Parliament scraps rule of law debate