Significantly reduce the reporting burden on businesses

"The first omnibus simplification package has brought tangible relief to craft businesses and other small and medium-sized enterprises. Reporting obligations have been significantly reduced. The European Commission is rigorously continuing along this path with the delegated acts it has now presented. The voluntary reporting standard should therefore be viewed positively. It provides craft businesses with a tool that enables them to limit enquiries about their sustainability to the absolute minimum. This should make an end to having to produce different reports for different business partners.

We must now ensure that the voluntary reporting standard is recognised across the business world. Small businesses must be able to rely on policymakers to create the necessary conditions for this. To this end, EU legislation governing banks, for example, must be amended. Banks need legal certainty that a sustainability report produced voluntarily by an SME meets all the requirements. At the same time, craft businesses must not be burdened by their business partners with additional requirements that go beyond the voluntary reporting standard."