Lobby groups call for business-friendly turn of the EU Green Deal

(EurActiv, 20 Mar 2024) European business groups have presented their wish lists for the next legislative cycle, calling on the EU to streamline policy, tackle double reporting and pair the bloc’s Green Deal with a solid industrial policy plan.

The EU’s main business lobby, BusinessEurope, and the German Chamber for Industry and Commerce (DIHK) put forward their key demands for the next legislative cycle at two different events in Berlin on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. They called on the EU to “concentrate on the essentials” in the next five-year term – after what the DIHK called a “tsunami” of new regulations coming from Brussels during the current legislative term.

Moreover, both associations underlined that they don’t want the EU to turn away from its climate objectives, but argued that in order to reach them, it should be better explained to companies what is required from them – and called for reducing double reporting.

Many rules would follow very similar objectives, but would each add different reporting obligations for companies, Freya Lemcke, the DIHK’s chief lobbyist in Brussels, said, referring for instance to the EU’s due diligence directive, the sustainable finance taxonomy, and corporate sustainability reporting.

There was a “feeling of confusion” among companies, Sibylle Thierer, DIHK member and vice president of Eurochambres, the European association of business chambers, told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday (20 March), “simply because there is something new every day”.

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EurActiv, 20 Mar 2024: Lobby groups call for business-friendly turn of the EU Green Deal