EU told new director regulations would create 'confusion and complexity'
The new rules would come in under the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D).
The directive will impose on major firms a duty to carry out checks on human rights and environmental conduct on their global business.
According to ecoDa, an umbrella group representing the main national institute of directors across Europe, the new rules would create 'confusion and complexity'.
The organisation teamed up with law firm Allen & Overy to carry out a survey across Europe to gather the views of its members, lawyers and technical experts.
The survey findings showed that there are many different approaches to directors' liability across the 15 jurisdictions investigated.
According to Bart De Bock, senior associate at Allen & Overy, said: “It appears that many diverse liability frameworks apply different rules on the damage requirement, on causal link, on the burden of proof, on how to make derivative claims, and to initiate tort liability cases”.
Pascal Durand-Barthez, chair of ecoDa's Advocacy, said European jurisdictions already have management wrongdoings covered in their laws.
He said: “In most jurisdictions, the law does not distinguish between mismanagement wrongdoings which specifically relate to sustainability or other causes”.
The draft directive was released in February, with negotiations over the final text likely to be concluded next year once the various European bodies involved have reached a common ground.
To download the full survey findings, click here