"New EU reporting requirements will force firms to ‘get serious’", 19 March 2021

The European Commission will force companies to “get serious” about due diligence and non-financial reporting as it prepares to table key legislation in the coming months.

“Responsible reporting is clearly part of responsible business,” said the EU’s financial stability Commissioner, Mairead McGuiness. “We are not doing this to impose new burdens on companies but to ensure that our companies are sustainable,” she added. 

The EU executive will ensure coherence between new corporate due diligence legislation and the revised non-financial reporting directive to increase companies’ accountability, McGuinness and Justice Commissioners Didier Reynders said at a webinar on Monday (15 March).

“My colleague Commissioner Reynders and I work together to build a consistent framework on corporate reporting, and on sustainable corporate governance,” said McGuinness.

“We’ll ensure that there is coherence between the two proposals, and we continue to make sure that throughout the legislative process with the Council and Parliament we keep that coherence in mind,” she added.

This year the EU is tightening its legislation to expand corporate due diligence requirements, revising the non-financial reporting directive and drawing together a list of green finance criteria, known as the EU taxonomy...

...The aim of the bill, which is the product of a decade of campaigning by EU lawmakers and civil society, is to create legal certainty and increase environmental and human rights protection across European supply chains...

...Julia Linares from WWF said the Commission must ensure coherence and consistency between legislation and include clear climate targets.

“Without a target, companies will not deliver randomly,” she added, saying the taxonomy could act as a guide but is not a complete solution.