Corporate reporting and corporate social responsibility (CSR) rules agreed

Member state diplomats have approved a compromise struck with MEPs on new social and European Commissionenvironmental reporting rules for companies.

  • France, which is understood to be unhappy at the extent to which the proposed corporate social responsibility (CSR) directive has been weakened, insisted that the type of companies covered should be reviewed in future.
  • Other member states were not keen on the whole idea of mandatory reporting.
  • Only the 5,000 EU companies with more than 500 employees that are listed on stockmarkets or otherwise of public interest will have to report non-financial issues, down from the 18,000 envisaged by the European Commission and MEPs.
  • Companies will not have use any specific reporting standards and they can disclose their non-financial performance in a separate report rather than in their main annual reports, as the Parliament’s rapporteur had wanted.

This compromise deal still has to be rubber stamped by the full European Parliament and Council of Ministers before it can enter force.

Source: ENDS Europe
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