WDK urges business-friendly policy to replace “absurd” EU bureaucracy

Frankfurt am Main, Germany – While welcoming an EU Commission ‘omnibus’ initiative to simplify companies' reporting obligations, German rubber industry association (WDK) has called for “a much more far-reaching deletion and standardisation.”

EU reporting obligations require a huge effort and resource-input by companies, without any added value, WDK president Michael Klein said in a 6 Feb response.

Such reports, he said, disappear into official archives without review or evaluation, and have no tangible use as public information.

Klein, therefore, urged a significant streamlining around the requirements of the EU Supply Chain Act (CSDDD) and the Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

“The CSRD obliges companies to take and document measures for responsible action in the supply chain. That's enough. An additional supply-chain law, such as the CSDDD, is therefore superfluous."

In addition, the WDK president called for the ‘omnibus’ initiative to be extended to the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR).

The "first-touch principle", he said, must be established, so that it is sufficient for the first player in the European supply-chain to meet the legal reporting and due diligence obligations.

The fact that the EU imposes the same obligations on all companies in the subsequent supply-chain within the EU is “absurd and creates a bureaucratic monster,” believes Klein.

The industry leader went on to challenge the "misplaced suspicion of the legislator", as reflected in reverse-burden-of-proof requirements:

"In the case of European supply-chain regulation and the EUDR, companies must collect evidence that they are behaving in accordance with the law.

“They are thus practically under general suspicion. This also urgently needs to change. We need not only a more business-friendly policy in Europe, but also a more business-friendly perspective."