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Spain urges Brussels not to relax environmental obligations for companies due to simplification

by AI | 18.Feb 2025 | Europe in brief AI

It also calls for the simplification agenda to reinforce the “crucial” role of taxonomy in mobilizing capital flows toward sustainable investment.

Wind turbines and solar panels at the inauguration of the largest renewable energy generation complex in the Canary Islands, on October 27, 2022, in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (Spain). Photo: Europa Press

Brussels – The Government of Spain has urged the European Commission in a letter on Tuesday not to relax companies’ environmental obligations in favor of administrative simplification to avoid putting the EU’s green ambition at risk.

This message was conveyed to the European Executive by the third vice president and minister for Ecological Transition of the Government of Spain, Sara Aagesen, and the Spanish minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, who request not to compromise the bloc’s climate targets in the new package to reduce bureaucracy anticipated for next February 26.

“Although the exercises of implementation and simplification are essential, so are solid requirements for information on the climate,” states the letter addressed to the European commissioners for Clean Transition, Teresa Ribera; for Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné; for Economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, and for Financial Services, María Luís Albuquerque.

Thus, the ministers have demanded maintaining the obligations for companies to assess the impact of climate change on them, as well as the impact of their activity on the environment and society, based on the so-called “double materiality principle” included in the corporate sustainability reporting standards to provide investors with precise and comparable information that allows them to make informed decisions.

“We believe that all companies, including those in this category, should be subject to the obligation to report on the climate, although in a proportional manner,” indicates the letter.

The Spanish Executive also highlights the EU taxonomy regulation –which establishes the classification of sustainable economic activities– as the “cornerstone” of the EU’s sustainable finance framework, with direct links to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the EU Green Bonds Standard, and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which together form an “interconnected system.”

In this sense, Aagesen and Cuerpo request that the simplification agenda strengthens the “crucial” role of the taxonomy in the mobilization of capital flows towards sustainable investment, a task they believe can be carried out without reopening the framework legislation and only reviewing the delegated acts that detail it.

The letter also emphasizes the importance of the due diligence directive, which obliges companies and parent companies with more than 1,000 employees and a worldwide turnover exceeding 450 million euros to avoid, end, or reduce their negative impact on human rights and the environment.

Ultimately, the Spanish Government points out that “the removal of certain existing obligations would not necessarily improve the EU’s competitiveness,” and warns that, on the contrary, “could send a dangerous signal of retreating in European values and ambitions.” (February 18)