Omnibus: A signal that runs counter to the needs of our businesses

As the European Parliament adopted its negotiating mandate for the Omnibus Directive on November 13, Impact France warns of a major weakening of sustainability rules that could undermine our companies. By supporting amendments that dilute the requirements of the CSRD and the duty of care, some MEPs are sending Europe backwards, sending a signal that runs counter to the real needs of our companies and industries, paving the way for more unfair competition and instability. 

CSRD and CS3D: two structuring frameworks to protect our businesses and accelerate economic transition

In recent years, the European Union has taken a decisive step forward with the adoption of two key regulations on corporate sustainability: 

• The Duty of Vigilance Directive (CS3D), inspired by the French law on the subject, designed to prevent human rights and environmental abuses in value chains, and to guarantee fair competition in the face of less advantageous international practices.
• The Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Directive (CSRD), which provides harmonized reporting enabling companies to anticipate their risks, strengthen their strategy and attract financing in line with their needs.

Long-awaited, these frameworks were designed to help our companies secure their value chains, strengthen the resilience of their models and defend themselves more effectively against players who don't play by the rules.

Between legitimate simplification and dangerous weakening

In the new mandate of the European Commission, which took office at the end of 2024, competitiveness is one of the priorities, following on from the Draghi report. As a result, a series of regulatory adjustments have been initiated, with the Omnibus I package, the first of a series to be presented in February 2026. Its initial ambition: to simplify and clarify certain obligations of these directives to better align them with the operational realities of companies.

However, following the Council's position a few months ago, the vote in the European Parliament - after a rocky scenario and an unexpected alliance between part of the Chamber and the far right - profoundly altered the nature of this initiative. Some of the amendments adopted, such as raising the thresholds for application of the CSRD, deleting civil liability and eliminating transition plans aligned with the Paris Agreement from the CS3D, distort the balance of the text.

If these setbacks were confirmed, they would turn a technical simplification operation into a structural weakening, resulting in a loss of clarity for managers, increased exposure to unfair competition for our businesses and industries, and a slowdown in investment.

In an international context marked by intensifying economic competition, Europe cannot afford to disarm its companies by weakening the tools that secure their transition and protect their competitiveness.

Simplifying without giving up: mobilizing Impact France

For over a year, Impact France has been fully mobilized to defend a useful simplification, lightening what needs to be lightened without abandoning the initial ambitions of the texts. From media interventions (cf. Carenews, La Tribune) and collective mobilization with #FuturCSRD and Business for a Better Tomorrow, to dozens of meetings in Brussels and with government ministries, we've multiplied our actions in recent months. Our objective is constant: to rapidly obtain a fair, balanced and protective compromise for European companies, even after the initial rejection of the text in plenary.

Trilogues: a decisive moment to correct course

The future of the CSRD and CS3D now lies in the trialogues. Weakening these frameworks too much would mean exposing our companies to even greater international competition, weakening the Union's normative sovereignty, and delaying the transformations essential to the competitiveness and resilience of our industrial fabric.

Impact France calls on the European institutions to return to a balanced approach to simplification: to make the rules more operational, yes, but without sacrificing the reliability, stringency and coherence that are the strength of the European framework today.

"By weakening the duty of care directive, Europe is abandoning its efforts to combat unfair competition, which primarily penalizes French and European industry. The very effect of these rules was to encourage major retailers to think twice before going to China or Bangladesh to produce, and to favor countries that impose high social and environmental standards - Europe in general, and France in particular. Giving up on this dynamic means depriving our factories of essential support at a time when they need it most. Confirmation of this vote in the trialogues would be a very bad signal: it would mean giving up on protecting our companies, our jobs and our ability to produce in Europe." Julia Faure, Co-President of Impact France

"Europe needs to ask itself if it really wants to make a success of the ecological transition, move away from dependence on fossil fuels and build more competitive and resilient businesses. The weakening of the Green Deal voted by the European Parliament reflects a political choice in favor of the short term, at a time when the world is decarbonizing and transforming. Let's hope that the trialogues will enable us to correct our aim: the Impact France movement will work with determination to this end", says Pascal Demurger, Co-President of Impact France.

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