BRUSSELS — More than 80 percent of Europe’s companies will be freed from environmental reporting obligations after EU institutions reached a deal on a proposal to cut green rules Monday.
The deal is a major legislative victory for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her push to cut red tape for business, one of the defining missions of her second term in office.
However, that victory came at a political cost: The file pushed the coalition that got her reelected to the brink of collapse and led her own political family, the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), to team up with the far right to get the deal over the line.
The new law, the first of many so-called omnibus simplification bills, will massively reduce the scope of corporate sustainability disclosure rules introduced in the last political term. The aim of the red tape cuts is to boost the competitiveness of European businesses and drive economic growth.
