Influencing
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8 December 2021
For a Europe at the forefront of the ecological and social transition
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The Impact France team is fully mobilised to make the voice of committed entrepreneurs heard in Brussels and Strasbourg!
Green deal, EU action plan for the social economy, French Presidency of the EU Council... there is no shortage of European issues. And 2022 is shaping up to be a pivotal year, with no less than fifty texts to be drafted. We are convinced that tomorrow's economy will be European, or it will not be!
The challenge of building a European social and ecological market is twofold: both to engage all companies in the transformation of their model and the improvement of their practices, and to help the emergence and development of impact companies commensurate with their commitment to the general interest.
The Impact France Movement hopes that France, which is about to take over the presidency of the EU Council, will work hard to ensure that the introduction of these new standards will enable the European economy to align itself with its climate and social objectives.
Among the major European issues of the moment, several concern us directly. Here is an overview.
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On 21 April 2021, the Commission adopted a proposal for a directive on non-financial reporting obligations (NFRD), which amends the existing reporting requirements and would increase the scope of the current NFRD.
This proposal extends the scope to all large companies and all companies listed on regulated markets (€20 million balance sheet, €40 million turnover or 250 employees minimum). It requires auditing of reported information, introduces more detailed reporting requirements by incorporating new indicators, obliges companies to digitally 'tag' reported information so that it can be analysed by algorithms and fed into the European single access point envisaged in the Capital Markets Union Action Plan.
The stakes are therefore high: what benchmark for analysing the extra-financial performance of companies do we want to see imposed at European level?
The proposal for a Sustainable Corporate Governance Directive currently being drafted by the European Commission aims to strengthen the European regulatory framework for company law and corporate governance legislation. Based on the own-initiative report by Pascal Durand MEP, this proposed directive should introduce a European duty of care and establish rules for companies to better integrate sustainability issues into their operations and value chains with regard to social and human rights, climate change, environment etc.
We are convinced that the introduction ofsuch a law at European level has never been so urgent , given the dramatic consequences of the actions of certain European companies in social and environmental matters (oil projects, deforestation, exploitation of workers, recourse to child labour) and the transitional objectives which are constantly moving away and which we must nevertheless achieve!
The Action Plan for the Social Economy in Europe to be launched on 16 December by the European Commission should enable it to establish a coherent set of measures to create the conditions for the social economy to realise its potential to contribute to the construction of such a development model.
In particular, the plan will aim to improve social investment, help social economy organisations and social enterprises to start up and develop their activities and social impact, innovate and create jobs, while embedding this support in the environmental and digital transition.
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This proposed regulation should oblige companies to substantiate their claims about the environmental footprint of their products/services by using standardised quantification methods.
The aim of this initiative is to make these claims reliable, comparable and verifiable throughout the EU, thus actively combating the growing greenwashing that penalises truly committed companies!
1. The creation of a European statute for companies with a social and ecological impact
This status could be accompanied by a European status of company with a mission, whose social and environmental obligations would be strengthened in relation to the provisions present in the PACTE law.
2. A reduced VAT rate for socially and environmentally responsible products
In order to encourage the transformation of our consumption patterns and to promote the accessibility of products from reuse, fair trade and environmentally friendly channels, we propose a revision of the Value Added Tax Directive in order to modify the typology of goods and services according to their social and ecological impact.
3. Real incentives for sustainable corporate governance, in particular through the alignment of executive remuneration policy with the company's long-term sustainability objectives
4. The integration of impact criteria into the European non-financial reporting framework
The Impact France Movement proposes that the framework on which EFRAG (the association mandated by the Commission to establish the indicator framework) is currently working should be based as much as possible on theImpact Score criteria.
In addition to ESG indicators, the Impact France Movement would like to see the questions of the company's core business, its mission, and value sharing fully integrated into the benchmark, thus making its action for and towards society more transparent.
Do you want to contribute to the transformation of the European economy? Contact us !
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