Dr. Chris O'Connell:

I just would like to chime in on that. The buzzword of "simplification" is an empty signifier; it is what one believes it to be. It does not even really exist in terms of the omnibus, particularly as it pertains to the CSDDD. We can take civil liability as an example. Under civil liability, there will be a harmonised regime with the same standard for all 27 member states. If the omnibus proposal under that goes ahead, we return to the status quo of 27 different civil liability regimes. This would mean that victims and companies would have to base their risk analysis on many different and differing civil liability regimes. It does not do what it says on the tin.

In terms of it not being deregulation, this is the first of a confirmed four but a suspected ten omnibus Bills the European Commission will roll out, focusing on a wide range of areas that go beyond our remit in terms of our work. It is difficult to move away from the strong impression that this is an ideologically based, deregulatory agenda we are witnessing here. Earlier in this process there was an option on the table to proceed by way of what I think are called level 2 amendments at Commission level, a bit like ministerial orders. That would have clarified issues of reporting. Instead it was decided to take a route that opens up not only CSRD and the EU taxonomy but also CSDDD which did not itself create any new reporting obligations. Again, it is difficult to move away from the idea that there is much more here than the mooted simplification.