Investing.com -- The European Commission proposed major alterations to European Union (EU) green rules on Wednesday. The changes could exempt thousands of companies from sustainability reporting obligations and delay the implementation of its due diligence policy by a year.

According to the new proposals, only businesses with more than 1,000 employees will have to report on their environmental and human rights impact. This marks a significant shift from the existing rules that target firms with more than 250 employees.

The Commission stated that the proposed changes would exempt approximately 40,000 companies. This equates to 80% of all firms that the policy was originally intended to apply to.

The proposed amendments will still need to undergo negotiation and receive approval from the European Parliament and EU member states before they can be put into effect.

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