Draft Report of the Platform on Sustainable Finance on a Social Taxonomy: EBF response

14 September 2021

The Social Taxonomy should remain a voluntary tool for both financial and non-financial undertakings to guide their positive societal impact

• A balanced ambitious and robust framework is needed, and it must clearly define what can be considered socially sustainable in doing business, also from the point of view of corporate lenders who want to have a positive social impact.
• The Social Taxonomy should focus on the value added through the additionality of social impact in a company’s main activities and not become an all-encompassing ESG taxonomy. Such a taxonomy would end up classifying as social any business with social policies in place for their operations.
• The EBF welcomes the intended consistency with upcoming legislation, e.g. on Sustainable Corporate Governance, the CSRD as well as already existing market guidance on the Social Bonds Standard.
• It is important that the taxonomy clearly delineate its geographical focus (EU vs. global level); in particular reflecting on what impact it aims to create outside the EU.

EBF

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