Imposing gender quotas on boards, expanding paid maternity leave, and increasing emission reduction targets are all proposals that should be scrapped by the European Commission, according to a leading business lobby and first reported by EurActiv this week.

A letter from BusinessEurope to European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who is tasked with delivering better regulation and cutting red tape, highlighted several proposals the lobby believes should be dropped because they would hinder competitiveness, several that the group believes need serious revisions, and others that should be fast-tracked, according to the group’s 25 Nov. statement. Timmermans, part of the new commission headed by President Jean-Claude Juncker, is reviewing roughly 130 pieces of pending legislation the previous commission did not complete, EurActiv reported.

A copy of BusinessEurope’s submission to Timmermans is available on the EurActiv website as well as the BusinessEurope website.

“The EU must avoid legislative proposals with a disproportionate impact on competitiveness and that add no real value to the single market and growth,” BusinessEurope’s statement said. “This is also in line with the approach for the EU to focus on the big issues and respecting the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.”

The lobby, comprised of business members from 33 European countries, called for early involvement by businesses in impact assessments of proposed laws, as well as by the commissioner in charge of better regulation to assess the need and impact of proposals.

Gender quotas for boards was among the five proposals the lobby wants scrapped. A directive proposed by the European Commission and backed by two committees of European Parliament last month, would require listed companies to ensure women account for at least 40 percent of their non-executive board members by 2018 or 2020, depending upon whether the company is owned in whole or part by the government of a member state. The proposed directive also would require companies to select the candidate of “the under-represented sex” in situations where candidates are equally qualified.

“BusinessEurope is in favor of promoting better gender balance in boards. However, we should avoid one-size-fits-all quotas which disregard the highly diverse conditions in different sectors (and) companies and do not take into account the way corporate boards function and are renewed,” the group said. Instead of going for “full harmonization” of gender quotas on boards, it would be better for the commission to make a recommendation and leave the decision and the details to Member States, the lobby said.

Bernadette Ségol, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), strongly objected to the suggestion the gender balance directive be dropped. ETUC is comprised of trade unions and trade union federations throughout Europe, focused on promoting workers’ interests.

“It is outrageous that BusinessEurope says requiring companies to have more women on their boards would damage competitiveness,” Ségol was quoted as saying by EurActiv. “I think it would improve competitiveness. I feel insulted and I think many other women will be too. They should publicly withdraw that claim right now.”

Also on what EurActiv termed the group’s “hit list” was the Financial Transactions Tax, which is being pursued by a group of Member States allowed under EU rules after the measure stalled on an EU-wide basis. The business lobby argues the FTT will “undermine the overall aim of financial stability,” drive market-wide volume declines, and trigger relocation of financial services firms.

Ségol argued that rather than undermining financial stability, the FTT would promote it instead by curbing “excessive and dangerous speculative trading.”

A directive to reduce national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants also should be dropped because of the risk too much of the burden to hit the targets would fall on industrial sectors rather than non-industrial sectors like agriculture, as well as a package of waste reduction measures known as the circular economy package. A measure extending paid maternity leave to as much as 20 weeks, a proposal stalled for nearly five years, also should be withdrawn, BusinessEurope argued, saying pregnant workers are already adequately protected,

Among directives needing “substantial improvement” are data protection, structural measures to improve the resilience of credit institutions, and shareholders’ rights, the group said. The data protection directive as proposed is too prescriptive, would be outdated before it even enters force, and imposes burdens on companies without achieving the goals, the group argued. The proposal for structural changes to EU credit institutions “goes too far” and overlaps with other financial reforms, BusinessEurope maintained. The group said the proposed shareholders’ rights directive blurs the roles of boards and shareholders, will significantly increase the administrative burden for listed companies, and jeopardizes commercially sensitive information.

Also in need of substantial changes, according to BusinessEurope, is the proposed conflict minerals directive, which the group said it has concerns about whether the rule would be binding and whether more minerals would be including in the scope. The group said the matter should be part of a broader approach involving more regions than just the EU and the United States, and use “positive incentives without putting too much emphasis on companies’ responsibilities.”

Directives the group is supporting for rapid adoption include transportation measures and updated trademark protections and harmonization.

The European Commission told EurActiv that no decisions have been made as yet on withdrawals or reviews of pending measures.

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