F. R. | Francisco Román, President of the ESG Group of the Círculo de Empresarios, assures that “What we do in the Círculo is a call for pragmatism and common sense, which is the basis for the functioning of companies”
Q- The Círculo de Empresarios is calling for the application of sustainability regulations to be diversified according to the type of company. What should be the threshold or indicator to establish this segmentation?
A- It is not easy to find a cross-cutting scale across sectors. What has to be assessed is the management burden of a company. Size can be a good guideline: revenue, employees… A combination of two or three factors that are easy to understand and easy to convey to everybody. If I have 50 employees and I have a turnover of 10 million euros, I want to know that I don’t have to apply everything from the start. There can be transitional regimes and many other formulas.
Q- In the documents produced by the Circulo de Empresarios on sustainability, a moratorium on the application of the regulation is suggested, as has been done with the public deficit limits of the EU states, given the context of inflation, uncertainty, rising energy costs, etc. What could this consist of?
What we do in the Circle is a call for pragmatism and common sense, which is the basis for the functioning of companies. We talk about this moratorium as a possibility. What can and cannot be delayed depends very much on the circumstances. We have to consider the pace of implementation of everything that is coming out and the balance between what is urgent and what is important, because making a mistake in this and believing that everything important must be urgent is a big mistake. When we talk about more public-private collaboration we mean, for example, listening to companies and their technical parties on the transposition of regulation in order to make it more pragmatic, feasible and viable. A sustained dialogue with business is sure to generate a realistic consideration of whether or not a moratorium on something is appropriate.
Q- What role should NextGen funds play in this area?
A- The territories of opportunity are determined by the trends that are coming. And the early leap into these opportunities can come from NextGen funds. I think it is a tragedy that we are not able as a country to receive them and distribute them with pragmatism and speed, because this is punishing us.
