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Commission proposes mobilising 100 billion euros for clean

tech

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Wants to simplify state aid rules

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Proposals come as Trump administration rolls back red tape

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Reforms need support in European Parliament, among EU

states

(Recasts with plans to loosen rules on sustainability, writes

through)

By Kate Abnett and Julia Payne

BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The European Commission

plans to loosen its rules on corporate sustainability reporting

and supply chain transparency, it said on Wednesday, in a bid to

make Europe more competitive with the United States and China.

The plans - or "Simplification Omnibus" - are part of a

wider package of reforms aimed at helping make Europe's

companies more competitive, and they include incentives to

encourage industry to decarbonise and measures to lower energy

costs.

European businesses may cheer after long complaining that

tight regulations and bureacracy hampered their ability to

compete globally, but opponents of the new deregulation drive

said it "guts corporate accountability".

In the U.S., President Donald Trump has been rolling back

regulation to spur growth.

But even as it loosens its reporting rules around green

policies, the EU executive said the European Union would stand

firm on its net zero emission targets and other climate goals.

"EU companies will benefit from streamlined rules," European

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

"This will make life easier for our businesses while

ensuring we stay firmly on course toward our decarbonisation

goals. And more simplification is on the way."

The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, aims to

reduce reporting burdens by 25% in an initial wave of measures

in the first half of 2025 - which it said would translate into

savings of 40 billion euros ($42 billion) for European

companies.

The Commission also set out a "Clean Industrial Deal", a

second pillar of the competitiveness plan, designed to support

energy-intensive industries facing high costs and heavy

bureaucracy as they fight for market share with global rivals.

It also aims to boost the clean tech sector.

The EU targets net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Clean Industrial Deal proposes making 100 billion euros

($105 billion) available to support EU-made clean manufacturing,

streamlining public procurement processes and simplifying state

aid rules to give Europe's ailing industries a boost.

Businesses and industry lobby groups frequently complain

that bureaucratic processes in the EU hold back the bloc

compared with the U.S. and China, which have faster-growing

economies.

"It's a machine we have created in Brussels - I don't know

if we need a DOGE programme - plenty of civil servants, which

are in fact there to create regulations. That's a problem,"

TotalEnergies boss Patrick Pouyanne said this month, referring

to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, which is

overseeing a sweeping government cost-cutting programme.

"It's a question, can Europeans really re-think their own

model?" he added.

LIGHTER-TOUCH BUREAUCRACY

The 'omnibus' proposes easing the rules on how businesses

report the environmental and social impact (CSRD) of their

activities as well as supply chain due diligence rules (CSDDD).

The plans exempt any company with fewer than 1,000 employees

from the CSRD rules: roughly 80% of the companies currently

covered by the directive.

The due diligence law, meanwhile, will be delayed by a year

until 2028 and will only require companies to make environmental

and human rights checks on their direct suppliers rather than

along their entire supply chain.

Critics said the Commissions plans threw Europe into reverse

and threatened to erase years of hard-fought gains in

sustainability and green transition leadership.

"This will risk creating a disastrous lack of ESG data

across the region: a nightmare for responsible investors and

consumers. This new package guts corporate accountability," said

Giorgia Ranzato, sustainable finance manager at environmental

campaign group T&E.

The Commission also announced plans it said would exempt

about 90% of importers from its planned carbon border tariff on

the grounds that their imports accounted for only 1% of

emissions covered by the policy.

The walk-back on ESG rules has met sharp resistance from

environmental campaigners, some investors and EU lawmakers.

The proposed changes must win support from the European

Parliament and a reinforced majority of the 27 EU member states,

meaning there may still be changes.

"They do not simply lower the level of ambition, they

eliminate it," Socialist EU lawmakers said in a Feb. 20 letter

to Von der Leyen.