Ref. Ares(2021)6116633 - 07/10/2021
FISMA/11112
Meeting BPIFrance – 18 December 2020
Bpifrance extends a positive welcome to the EU Taxonomy as a new tool to underpin sustainable
finance and the ecological and energy transition of the EU and EU businesses. Bpifrance intends to
use the Taxonomy to roll out its climate plan that seeks to make both Bpifrance’s activities and the
French economy greener. Bpifrance will be affected by the Taxonomy in three respects: - As a large
undertaking subject to the NFRD (non-financial reporting directive); - As a financial market
participant; - As an implementing partner of European financing, and the InvestEU programme in
particular.
A vast number of the Taxonomy’s implementation arrangements are not yet defined and are due to
be clarified by the European Commission over the course of 2021. In this regard, economic
stakeholders are working against a backdrop of great uncertainty. The following points also warrant
special attention:
• A gradual and realistic application of the Taxonomy is desirable. In fact, the Taxonomy’s
implementation timetable stipulates reporting by economic stakeholders in respect of the fiscal year
2021, which is incompatible with the publication date of the delegated acts (June 2021) and with
final adoption of the Taxonomy criteria (December 2021). A regulation that came into force from
2023 with the first reporting concerning financial 2022 would be consistent with the Commission’s
work while still setting an ambitious target. It is worth noting that it is by no means a given that
financial institutions will be able to secure in-house “taxonomy” skills in the short term, given the
significant transformation (in training and information systems) that is demanded. Widespread use of
external assessors and consultants to evaluate firms’ positions is likely in the short term.