EU Updates - September
Over 1 Trillion Euros to Power the Covid-19 Recovery between 2021-2027
After four days and four nights of negotiations, EU leaders agreed on a seven-year EU budget of €1.074 trillion coupled with a €750 billion three-year recovery fund. The main areas involved in the budget agreement are:
The new Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)
€312.5 billion in grants and €360 billion in loans will be destined to help countries and their economies facing the crisis through the RRF. However, in the next two years the funding will be apportioned according to criteria such as unemployment in the past five years.
The Common Agricultural Policy
The budget amounts at €336.4 billion, mostly targeting farmers, rural development and climate ambitions.
Cohesion Funding
€330 billion and a portion of the new ReactEU will be used strategically at limiting the divergence of the post-pandemic reconstruction.
New Just Transition Fund
Climate receives 30% of the full budget and is supported by the creation of a new Just Transition Fund, that will receive €17.5 billion in total.
Health
Being a key element of the recovery negotiations, health will receive €1.7 billion.
Digital Europe
The program on the digital expansion, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity will receive €6.8 billion.
Transport and infrastructure
Railways, energy infrastructures, digital infrastructures and the space program will receive a total amount of €11.4 billion. In 2021 discussions on the carbon border tax and digital tax will continue, with the aim of introducing both by 2023.
EU Commission Launches New Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative
The European Commission is launching the Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative to improve the EU regulatory framework on company law and corporate governance. In line with Next Generation EU, these new plans for sustainable corporate governance, due in 2021, are meant to “ensure environmental and social interests are fully embedded into business strategies.
In Europe, many companies seem to struggle with a lack of a strategic perspective on sustainability, focusing more short-term investments that fail to address long-term climate, social and human rights risks.
The call for feedback will stay open for 10 weeks, until the 8th of October. To influence EU policy-making and have your say, submit your answer here. As planned, in Q3 2020, the European Commission will open a public consultation on the subject, welcoming the active participation of key stakeholders.
Towards Comparable Data in Non-Financial Reporting
The non-financial information reported by companies is deficient in terms of comparability, reliability and relevance, making a review of the NFRD necessary. This is the opinion expressed by most respondents who participated to the public consultation on the review of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). The overview on the responses has been published by the European Commission in a summary document including a detailed analysis of the 600 contributions received until 11 July 2020.
Most respondents also agreed that:
the introduction of a required common standard for companies could help addressing the current issues.
Non-financial information needs to be made machine-readable and available through a single access point.
Less clear is respondents’ position on where to locate non-financial information. Only 55% of interviewees believe that all information should be disclosed in the management report.
After collecting inputs, the European Commission is expected to adopt a proposal regarding the NFRD in the first quarter of 2021.
For more information: