Brussels’ decision to postpone the application dates of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is a symbolic move, but a deeply disappointing one, according to ECR Group Coordinator in the Legal Affairs Committee, Tobiasz Bocheński.

Framed as a step towards deregulation, the first part of the ‘Omnibus’ package presented by the Commission and adopted by the Parliament yesterday, is in fact nothing more than bureaucratic sleight of hand, according to the Polish MEP.

“What we saw yesterday was not deregulation. Postponing a regulation for a year or two, while leaving its heavy bureaucratic structure intact, is not reform. It is mystification. The Commission and the dominant groups in the Parliament want to appear to be responding to the economic crisis, but they lack the courage to act”, said Bocheński.

The delay comes a day after US President Donald Trump announced a new wave of tariffs—a reminder that Europe’s competitors are acting decisively.

“Meanwhile”, said Bocheński, “Europe is paralysed by its own bureaucracy. All serious economic indicators, including the Draghi report, show the continent falling behind the US and China. Europe’s competitiveness is declining and Brussels is responding with symbolic gestures instead of structural change.

“Real deregulation means getting rid of burdensome, unnecessary rules—not wrapping them up in new packaging or kicking the can down the road”, Bocheński continued. “The Green Deal’s regulatory machine has already caused enormous concern among business owners. What is needed is not delay, but deregulation”, he explained.

He continued:

“Deregulation consists in removing unnecessary regulations that make it difficult for businesses and individuals to operate, thus increasing the room for manoeuvre that was previously restricted by the bureaucratic regulatory framework.”

“The European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the EPP, the S&D and Renew lack the courage and the will to really help the European economy. They are prisoners of a bureaucratic mentality that prevents them from fighting for the future of European entrepreneurship”.

The ECR Group calls for a real programme of deregulation as well as rolling back the excessive burdens already in place. Europe’s economic future depends on it.