“I hope you will forgive me that I will not try in four minutes to address all references to the European Commission. I will, if you allow me, just focus on three quick points. Firstly, the voluntary standard for SMEs, the so-called VSME standard, the Commission intends relatively soon, we would expect before the end of Q2, to issue a recommendation to SMEs endorsing the use of the VSME standard that EFRAG has developed, at the very least for the time being. We will see what the omnibus regime is when it is finally agreed, but in the meantime we understand that there is a need for clarity in the market and from SMEs, and so we expect that recommendation to come soon. Secondly, the representative from BusinessEurope quite rightly pointed to some issues regarding so-called wave one companies, those are the companies that have started reporting and that don't stop reporting because they are not touched by the stop the clock directive. We expect soon also to adopt a quick fix delegated act, which would effectively mean that wave one companies do not have to report additional information next year and additional information after that. The delegated act would at least address that issue, and of course draft delegated act adopted by the Commission, it would then come to the Parliament and to the Council for your no objection. The very last point is just a comment on the brief presentation that we heard at the beginning of what is obviously a much more substantial report we understand, but we would like to react to some of the things we saw on the screen, in particular the distinction between reporting requirements under the CSRD, reporting requirements, and behavioural requirements under the CSDDD. To be clear, for companies that are subject to both the CSDDD and the CSRD, the CSRD imposes no additional reporting requirements. We don't think it would be a very fair representation of the directives agreed by the co-legislators to indicate that the CSRD and the CSDDD somehow impose duplicate reporting requirements, they don't, or to state that companies may be required to report twice the same set of information, which is also not the case when looking at those two pieces of legislation and how they interact.”
Due diligence in supply chains (environmental and human rights) · Green claims · Sustainable corporate governance