Mr. Neil Willoughby:

I will try to be brief and will keep an eye on the time. First, on harmonisation, I take the Senator's points. We want to avoid a situation where we have 27 different EU laws on the basis of the CSDDD. We do not want to have 27 different situations. The central question is why do we have EU legislation in the first place? Why do we not continue with the legislation we currently have in Germany, that is being developed in the Netherlands and already is in France as well? Why do all the other countries not introduce theirs as well? There are two sides that need to be carefully looked at to make sure we have EU legislation implemented across the EU and that it is not completely different in different countries. On the non-EU subsidiaries, that does primarily concern US companies but there are also companies working cross-Border on the island of Ireland, between the North and the South, that might have 250 employees in the Republic of Ireland and 250 employees in Northern Ireland. They are in the scope of the legislation while their counterparts of the same size in the Republic of Ireland are not. That is an important consideration for that situation as well.

Last, on the point of greenwashing, it is important to note there is specific legislation being developed regarding green claims to deal with this issue in particular. In respect of transition plans, they also appear in the CSRD. The industrial emissions directive is another legislative item, so this is not in isolation. While I take the points Mr. Fitzpatrick made, the issue is present in other EU legislation.