Efforts to redraw EU non-financial reporting rules face a conflicting set of demands as the reform process becomes a free-for-all of diverging interest groups attempting to influence the outcome.

In the last week alone, the European Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the reform process itself, while France’s Europe minister called for the reform process to “accelerate”.

In a move prompted by calls from a group of NGOs, the ombudsman’s office says it has opened an inquiry into the so-called “omnibus” project to simplify legislation contained in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

The NGOs have complained the omnibus process does not include an appropriate consultation with stakeholders.

A statement from the ombudsman says: “The complainant, a non-governmental organisation, raised concerns that the European Commission failed to follow its ‘Better Regulation guidelines’ in preparing a legislative proposal in corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence.

“In particular, the complainant was concerned that the commission failed to carry out prior impact assessment or otherwise demonstrate that the proposal was based on the best available evidence and failed to carry out a public consultation prior to proposing the draft directive.”

The omnibus proposal was published in February and aims to soften the impact of the CSRD and CSDDD. At its core, it aims to delay implementation (already achieved with a “stop the clock” motion in the European Parliament) and cut by 80% the number of companies that fall within scope of the new rules.

‘Slash red tape’

Last week, French Europe minister Benjamin Haddad told news website Politico that efforts to “slash red tape” should “accelerate” if Europe is to compete with China and the US.

He also confirmed desires among some EU states—notably France and Germany—to abolish the CSDDD entirely.

Reports that abolition was on the wish list of Europe’s two biggest economies had come days earlier in a number of reports.

The current omnibus approach to CSDDD is to delay introduction, reduce its scope and cut the due diligence process to first-tier suppliers only.

Both CSRD and CSDDD have been in development over the past four years with implementation by some companies already underway before the omnibus process was launched.

However, views in Brussels changed markedly after publication in September last year of a report on EU competitiveness by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi.

His report said: “The EU’s sustainability and due diligence framework is a major source of regulatory burden magnified by a lack of guidance to facilitate the application of complex rules and to clarify the interaction between various pieces of legislation.”

In recent weeks a number of influential voices have taken aim at the omnibus process.

Parliamentarians on the economic and monetary affairs committee argued that the scope of the legislation should be reduced further than the omnibus proposals, lifting the threshold for companies in scope from 1,000 employees to those with 3,000 or more.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has published its own concerns that reforms could reduce the data available to stakeholders in key financial institutions, even big emitters of greenhouse gases.

The omnibus process still has some way to run but the clamour of voices pursuing separate agendas is only becoming more shrill.