Discretion and measure are usually in the banking world. This time, the boss of BNP Paribas did not chew his words. Faced with an audience of business treasurers gathered for a conference last November, he denounces the “bureaucratic delusions” from which Europe suffers. In the viewfinder of Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, European regulations, the CSRD, for Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. A acronym Jargonneux like Brussels likes them to designate this framework which obliges the Union companies to a marked and very detailed communication in environmental and social matters, from greenhouse gas emissions to water consumption through the Working conditions among subcontractors … all under two prisms: the risks to which they are exposed and their own impacts – we speak of “double materiality”. In total, more than a thousand information to encrypt or comment. The listed companies will make their first copy in a few weeks, on the basis of the information of 2024. The perimeter of eligible companies must extend in the following years.
The directive may have been voted two years ago, the debate is not closed. More than a dozen countries, including Germany, have not even transposed it at the national level. And the blows are becoming more and more violent. “Since the European elections in June, the forces involved in Parliament are less favorable to the green pact [NDLR : l’ensemble de textes visant à amener l’UE vers la neutralité carbone en 2050]. Emerging voices – in Germany in particular – to promote competitiveness, with the idea that the latter opposes sustainability “, notes Alexandre Rambaud, teacher -researcher in Agroparistech. In France, the exit of Stéphane Séjénéné – the vice- President of the Commission announcing on France Inter a “removal of reporting” – first gave rise to a retropedage. Report sine die “of the directive on the duty of vigilance, another pillar of the green pact,” urgent adoption “of measures to simplify the CSRD, however transposed at the end of 2023, or even two years offset from its entry into force …
Communication battle
To justify these reversals, Paris invokes Mario Draghi. In his report on competitiveness published in September, the former president of the European Central Bank finger at this regulatory burden weighing for the EU economy. “There are many other reasons for European dropout before it, such as the absence of industrial policy,” said Alexandre Rambaud. Or the cost of energy, much more ruinous than in addition to Atlantic. Speeding and complex, the green pact crystallizes resentments and gives rise to a communication battle, fueled by the threat of a trade war by Donald Trump with the rest of the world. “It is no coincidence that the pressure is actually increasing,” notes Laurent Lascols, trainer CSRD at the Higher Environment Institute. A fortiori with the approach of the presentation by the Commission, on February 26, of an “omnibus” law, aimed at revising several texts. Its object: simplify.
This watchword pleasantly resonates with the ears of the bosses, exasperated by the accumulation of standards to decrypt, digest, apply. Excel tables, mobilization of internal energies, using overpriced consultants … The managers are close to administrative burnout. And see red by encrypting the invoice. “It costs us ten times more than the extra-financial performance declaration [NDLR : l’ancêtre de la CSRD en France]or by the order of 500,000 euros, evaluates Alexandre Sabot, managing director of the manufacturer of Haulotte nacelles and president of France Industrie. A sum that we would prefer to devote to research and development expenses “. Same bell in a heavyweight from the CAC 40:” around thirty collaborators actively contribute to the development of this new report. The directive is 300 pages… The investment to understand the methodology and what we will have to publish is enormous, and the cost to the group will exceed the million euros, “said the” Mr. CSRD “designated to carry out the project . Seen in this new regulation “The golden egg hen denounces Laurent Lasols. By invoicing on time, they have an interest in saying that the process is complex and heavy. I have just chatted with a wholesaler in household appliances, whose SME will be subject to reporting next year. To develop his first report, he finds himself facing a consultant who offers him his services, for 80,000 euros. It is a lot for a distributor, whose margin is limited “.
Among the thousand points listed by the directive, our CAC 40 manager estimates that more than 700 the number of information he will have to provide. A certain flexibility exists: each company determines, in all of the covered fields, from the climate to pollution through biodiversity, which is relevant on its scale. But the task is nonetheless colossal. “It is not enough to press a button, this forces us to calculate certain indicators differently from the usual standards and for an international group, this work is all the more complex,” he said, hoping to contain again This mass of data in a document of less than 200 pages. Just to relevantly assess the gaps in men/women wages in several dozen countries, an independent expert had to be used. And there is no question of skimp on checks: the reliability is fundamental, a fortiori for a group on the stock market.
Risk of legal vagueness
Attractive, the idea of simplification is therefore making its way. By cutting into the number of information requested, claim some. By reviewing the eligibility thresholds offer others, to save small and medium -sized enterprises. The MEP Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe) supports the principle of reducing the burden of SMEs, by limiting the number of indicators that they will be required to transmit to their principals. But it puts into perspective the need to amend the current provisions: “Most of the changes do not imply reopen the text.” Isn’t the legal vagueness, he would not be worse than a binding regulation? This stirring arrives late, the first reports being about to be published. “Companies mainly need a stable regulatory calendar. There is a lot of noise at the moment, but in the meantime, they are required to apply the directive. All this creates a lot of confusion,” regrets Elisabeth Ottawa, manager of The public policy for Europe of the Schroders asset manager.
Revised or not, the drama of the CSRD is above all to struggle to convince of its usefulness. Who will read this hardened paperwork? Isn’t that an additional ball at the foot of European economic players in global competition? “90 % of this work is useless because it formalizes elements on which we have no lever or which are insignificant with regard to our challenges of decarbonation, asserts Alexandre Sabot. And if for once, Europe left for Companies The assessment of the just necessary … “At Rexel, where five people work full time in writing the report, Guillaume Texier is also severe. “Our decarbonation plan is already initiated, whatever happens,” said the director general of this large supplier of electrical equipment. However, the sling is not unanimous, including in the ranks of companies. Some industrialists such as Primark, Ferrero or Mars have pleaded in a common letter for maintaining texts as it is, advancing that “these initiatives are likely to promote resilience and long -term value of European companies and give them an advantage competitive “. On the Impact France side, we are open to adjustments, without questioning the movement. “The reality is that we only start the transition to a sustainable economy, that the risks linked to climate change only increase and that these transparency exercises are useful for asking the right questions and putting themselves in order of working order “, Confides to L’Express Pascal Demurger, the co -president of this organization of committed companies.
Strategic exercise
Because for its thurifiers, the CSRD is not a pure work of communication and transparency. The data is harvested in order to draw the future of the company and thus deduce how to reduce the vulnerability of its activities to climatic vagaries, where to guide its investments, what profiles recruit … “It is a strategic exercise that Help to better understand the risk, prioritize it, make a transition plan, “explains Pascal Canfin. On a larger scale, this standard must allow “to create the necessary information system if investors we want to redirect their capital to a greener economy, adds the MEP. By speaking the same language, we can use The power of the single market to invest in the environmental transition “.
Sustainability and competitiveness would therefore not be incompatible. Would the anxious European economic dropout be wrong to believe that the European Union works against its interests, with its green bureaucracy? In any case, it is not isolated in the process. “In 2024, there was a multiplication of international statements. In China, last spring, the three largest scholarships, then the government, communicated in their path to double materiality, in a logic of sustainable investment. In in Its wake, other countries adopt extra-financial reporting standards, from South Korea to Pakistan, “notes Alexandre Rambaud. As for Donald Trump’s return to power, he encourages some countries to take the plunge. “Canada adopted a manager in January, aligning the dry requests [NDLR : le gendarme boursier américain]. Since Trump’s provocations, the debate has reopened and voices campaign to get closer to the EU, and its sustainable standards. It is up to us to understand this and to grasp us, “insists the researcher. Especially since European texts have an extraterritorial ambition: from 2029, foreign companies making more than 150 million euros in figure ‘Affairs in the Union will in turn be submitted to the CSRD.
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