Is Omnibus your word of the week? 😂

Is Omnibus your word of the week? 😂

If you haven’t already seen this, here’s a quick update. 👀

The Responsible Investor reports the following:

- The Omnibus proposal initially scheduled to be delivered on 26th February by Stéphane Séjourné and Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is likely to be pushed to March

- It is likely that the European Commission will re-open both the CSRD and the CSDDD at Level 1

- On the CSRD, there is discussion on reducing the scope (so that it applies to the same companies as the companies that are in scope of the CSDDD - removing around 85% of companies from the scope of the CSRD). There is discussion around double materiality

- On the CSDDD, there is discussion on eleven points including climate transition plans and civil liability

💡 Are you receiving leaked documents left, right and centre? You’re not alone! Here are some public sources you can point to:

• Politico reports on the EU's planned strategy towards regulatory simplification (also making the rounds on LinkedIn if you don’t have access), and
• Euractiv reports on the European Commission’s work programme for 2025, set for release next week.

I have heard a lot about the simplification roundtables that took place this week. It’s great to see that a number of companies took the floor and spoke up in a way that seeks to advance meaningful due diligence. 💬 As I said last week: Simplification yes, but not at any cost.

And those who were not in the room have found other ways to make their views heard.

💰Investors with a combined €6.6 trillion in assets under management have urged the European Commission to “preserve the integrity and ambition” of the EU’s sustainable finance framework. They remind the European Commission that “[b]usinesses and financial market participants need long-term policy stability to support their implementation efforts.” They state that “[t]imely access to high-quality and comparable reporting is a prerequisite to inform and guide their investment decisions: investors are the key users of sustainability disclosures.” They urge for simplification by “streamlining the technical standards” and providing “clear implementation guidance.”

🤝 A network of dozens of civil society organisations have made their position clear: “we wish to state unequivocally that we firmly oppose any re-opening of previously agreed legislation, such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive1, at level one. We believe that such a move would risk creating regulatory uncertainty, jeopardising investments already made and necessary future investments, undermining rights of citizens who have been affected by companies’ operations, delaying progress, penalising companies that have already invested significantly in compliance, and eroding the trailblazing EU leadership on corporate sustainability standards.” They urge the European Commission to not re-open agreed legislative texts, but instead focus on practical application through an inclusive and transparent process.

📌 Stay tuned! This week, we attended the Business & Human Rights Lawyers Association (BHRLA) inaugural conference ⚖️🌍. We’re preparing a summary of key insights—so if you missed it, you can live vicariously through lawyers’ shoes (yes, being in a lawyers’ shoes can be exciting! 😉). Watch out for our post on Human Level’s LinkedIn next week and in your inbox next Friday!

Until then, have a great weekend! And spare a thought for the teams at DG Fisma (financial services, leading on CSRD & taxonomy) and DG Just (justice & consumers, leading on CSDDD) who are frantically drafting amendments as we speak 📝💼

Anna 💫

PS: Here is a photo from my time in Libya and how my work with people in conflict and post-conflict countries helps me when it feels like the most important things are being taken away from us