BRUSSELS — Lawmakers in the European Parliament on Thursday agreed to exempt more companies from green reporting rules after the center-right, right-wing and far-right groups allied to pass the EU’s first omnibus simplification package.
The outcome illustrates the EPP’s willingness to abandon its traditional centrist allies and press ahead with the support of far-right groups to pass its deregulation agenda, setting a precedent for future lawmaking in Parliament for the rest of the mandate.
The far-right Patriots and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups and some liberals voted in favor of the center-right European People’s Party’s proposed changes to the European Commission’s first omnibus simplification bill, which were also proposed by right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists.
The changes would raise the threshold of corporate sustainability disclosure and due diligence rules so that even fewer companies will have to report on the environmental footprint. 382 MEPs voted in favor, 249 against and 13 abstained.
The Parliament also voted to scrap mandatory climate transition plans for companies under EU due diligence rules, to force them to align their business models with the greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives of the Paris Agreement.
It comes after months of intense negotiations in which the EPP, the center-left Socialists and Democrats and the centrist Renew group failed to reach a deal among themselves on how far to roll back the reporting rules.
The sustainability omnibus bills reviews EU laws on environmental disclosure and supply chain transparency rules to reduce administrative burden for companies in a bid to boost their competitiveness.
The Parliament will now enter in negotiations with the Council of the EU and the Commission to finalize a common position on the file.



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