9 Amendments of Mireille D'ORNANO related to 2018/0178(COD)
Amendment 125 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) Article 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union aims to establish an internal market that works for the sustainable development of Europe, based among others on balanced economic growth and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. The results achieved in terms of both economic growth and environmental protection are very far removed from the objectives referred to here.
Amendment 128 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 4
Recital 4
(4) Sustainability and the transition to a low-carbon and climate resilient, more resource-efficient and circular economy are key in ensuring long-term competitiveness of the Union’s economy. Sustainability has long been at the heart of the European Union project and the Treaties give recognition to its social and environmental dimensions, but it remains wishful thinking, considering how disappointing its results are from a social and environmental point of view.
Amendment 137 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) In March 2018, the Commission published its Action Plan 'Financing Sustainable Growth'25 setting up an ambitious and comprehensive strategy on sustainable finance. One of the objectives set out in that Action Plan is to reorient capital flows towards sustainable investment in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth. The establishment of a unified classification system for sustainable activities is the most important and urgent action envisaged by the Action Plan. The Action Plan recognises that the shift of capital flows towards more sustainable activities has to be underpinned by a shared understanding of what 'sustainable' means. As a first step, clear guidance on activities qualifying as contributing to environmental objectives, should help inform investors about the investments that fund environmentally sustainable economic activities. Further guidance on the activities contributing to other sustainability objectives, including social objectives, may be developed at a later stage. _________________ 25 COM(2018) 97 final. COM(2018) 97 final.
Amendment 146 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) Offering financial products which pursue environmentally sustainable objectives is an effective way of channelling private investments into sustainable activities. National requirements for marketing as sustainable investments financial products and corporate bonds, in particular requirements set out to allow the relevant market actors to use a national label, aim to enhance investor confidence, to create visibility and to address concerns about “greenwashing”. Greenwashing refers to the practice of gaining an unfair competitive advantage by marketing a financial product as environment-friendly, when in fact it does not meet basic environmental standards. Currently a few Member States have in place labelling schemes. They build on different taxonomies classifying environmentally sustainable economic activities. Given the political commitments under the Paris Agreement and at Union level, it is likelypossible that more and more Member States will set up labelling schemes or other requirements on market actors in respect of financial products or corporate bonds marketed as environmentally sustainable. In doing so, Member States would be using their own national taxonomies for the purposes of determining which investments qualify as sustainable. If such national requirements are based on different criteria as to which economic activities qualify as environmentally sustainable, investors will be discouraged from investing across borders, due to difficulties in comparing the different investment opportunities. In addition, economic operators wishing to attract investment from across the Union would have to meet different criteria in the various Member States in order for their activities to qualify as environmentally sustainable for the purposes of the different labels. The absence of uniform criteria will thus increase costs and create a significant disincentive for economic operators, amounting to an impediment to access cross-border capital markets for sustainable investments. The barriers to access to cross-border capital markets for the purposes of raising funds for sustainable projects are expected to grow further. The criteria for determining whether an economic activity is environmentally sustainable should therefore be harmonised at Union level, in order to remove obstacles to the functioning of the internal market and prevent their future emergencIn order to remove obstacles to the functioning of the internal market and prevent their future emergence, one possible solution for consideration would be to harmonise the criteria for determining whether an economic activity is environmentally sustainable. With such harmonisation economic operators will find it easier to raise funding for their green activities across borders, as their economic activities can be compared against uniform criteria in order to be selected as underlying assets for environmentally sustainable investments. It will therefore facilitate attracting investment across borders within the Union.
Amendment 156 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) Moreover if market participants do not provide any explanation to investors of how the activities they invest in contribute to environmental objectives, or if they use different concepts in their explanation of what is a ‘sustainable’ economic activity, investors will find it disproportionately burdensome to check and compare these different financial products. It has been found that this discourages investors from investing into green financial products. Furthermore, the lack of investor confidence has major detrimental effects on the market for sustainable investment. It has further been shown that national rules or market-based initiatives taken to tackle this issue within national borders will lead to fragmenting the internal market. If financial market participants disclose how the financial products they claim are environment-friendly meet environmental objectives, and they use for such disclosures common criteria across the Union of what is an environmentally sustainable economic activity, this will help investors compare environment- friendly investment opportunities across borders. Investors will invest in green financial products with higher confidence across the Union, improving the functioning of the internal market.Does not affect the English version.)
Amendment 160 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) To address existing obstacles to the functioning of the internal market and to prevent the emergence of such obstacles in the future, Member States shcould be requirinvited to use a common concept of environmentally sustainable investment when setting up requirements for market actors for the purpose of labelling financial products or corporate bonds marketed as environmentally sustainable at national level. For the same reasons, fund managers and institutional investors that hold themselves out as pursuing environmental objectives should use the same concept of environmentally sustainable investment when disclosing how they pursue those objectives.
Amendment 177 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) To avoid market fragmentation as well as harm to consumer interests due to divergent notions of environmentally sustainable economic activities, national requirements that market actors should comply with when they wish to market financial products or corporate bonds as being environmentally sustainable, shcould build on the uniform criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities. Those market actors include financial market participants offering “green” financial products and non- financial companies issuing “green” corporate bonds.
Amendment 196 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 20
Recital 20
(20) For each environmental objective, uniform and precise criteria for considering economic activities to be substantially contributing to that objective should be laid down. One element of the uniform criteria should be to avoid significant harm to any of the environmental objectives set out in this Regulation. This is in order to avoid that investments are considered environmentally sustainable although the economic activities benefitting from those investments cause harm to the environment to an extent outweighing their contribution to an environmental objective. The conditions for substantial contribution and for not causing significant harm should enable investments into environmentally sustainable economic activities to make a real contribution to the environmental objectives.
Amendment 235 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 32
Recital 32
(32) It is of particular importance that the Commission when preparing the development of the technical screening criteria, carry out appropriate consultations in line with Better Regulation requirements. The process for the establishment and the update of the technical screening criteria should also involve relevant stakeholders and build on the advice of experts with proven knowledge and experience in the relevant areas. For that purpose, the Commission should set up a Platform on sustainable finance. This Platform should be composed of experts representing both the public and the private sector. Public sector representatives should include experts from the European Environmental Agency, experts from national environmental agencies, the European Supervisory Authorities and the European Investment Bank. Private sector experts should include representatives of relevant stakeholders, including financial market actors, universities, research institutes, associations and organisations. The Platform should advise the Commission on the development, analysis and review of technical screening criteria, including their potential impact on the valuation of assets that until the adoption of the technical screening criteria were considered as green assets under existing market practices. The Platform should also advise the Commission on whether the technical screening criteria are suitable for further uses in future Union policy initiatives aimed at facilitating sustainable investment.