Austrian scientists were well represented at the conference: University of Vienna colleague Ass.-Prof. Dr. Lena Hornkohl spoke on the topic of "EU digital regulations as elements of participatory democracy". Dr. Petra Felzmann (University of Innsbruck) devoted herself to a legal-economic critique of the European Green Bond Standard. C³FL member Stephan F. Schmid spoke on corporate sustainability enforcement. Under the title "5 years of the European Green Deal: A legal-economic analysis of corporate sustainability enforcement through the EU Sustainability Reporting (CSRD) and the EU Supply Chain Directive (CS3D)", Schmid addressed legal acts in connection with the Green Deal that require companies in particular to enforce sustainability: These include the EU Supply Chain Directive, the EU Sustainability Reporting and the EU Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). From a legal-economic perspective, Schmid assessed the effectiveness and efficiency of the legal acts. The analysis led to the conclusion that the new regulatory approach of instrumentalizing companies themselves to enforce sustainability should in principle be supported and further developed. However, the EU's new legal acts still suffer from numerous shortcomings that could be corrected as part of the announced Omnibus Initiative. The lively discussion that followed focused in particular on the question of whether the European legal acts should be adopted by Switzerland. However, due to the very far-reaching requirements of the CSRD (over 1,100 data points!) and the CS3D (auditing even indirectly connected suppliers), the discussion painted a skeptical picture. However, regardless of the legal follow-up, Swiss companies would be affected by the European legal acts due to the cascade effects and the extraterritorial scope of application of the CSRD and CS3D.

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