Parliament Takes Unprecedented Step of Challenging Proposed EU Directive
Parliament decided today to contest provisions in a proposed EU directive that would require companies to report the age, gender, education and geographical origin of their employees.
With a majority of 54 votes, the legislature passed a decision introduced by the European Affairs Committee that would result in a reasoned opinion being submitted to the European Parliament and the European Commission regarding the proposal.
The committee argued that the proposal, which would amend the Accounting Directives, applies measures that are not in the sole jurisdiction of the EU, and that political decisions must always be made at the lowest administrative and political level possible.
Corporate law, it said, is in the jurisdiction of member states and the existence of companies is based on the laws of member states.
Under the directive, public companies listed on the stock exchange would have to provide demographic information on policies for ensuring diversity. The report must include the goals of diversity policy, implementation and results achieved.
A minimum of 30 companies in Estonia would have to file non-financial information and 16 would be subject to diversity policy reporting requirements.