Commission launches public consultation on long-term and sustainable investment

The European Commission launched today a public consultation on long-term and sustainable investment to assess how investors integrate long-term factors, such as environmental, social and governance issues, into investment decisions, and what obstacles may prevent them from doing so. Long-term and sustainable investment is key for competitiveness and growth and can contribute to making our pension systems more sustainable. It can also help achieve the EU’s policy objectives linked to the transition to low carbon and climate resilient economy and to the respect of fundamental rights. This public consultation follows the Communication on Long-Term Financing of the European Economy, which emphasized the importance of environmental, social, and good governance issues (‘ESG investments’) for the longer-term sustainable performance of companies and investors. The Action Plan on building a Capital Markets Unionpresented in September 2015 also reiterates the importance of ESG investments.The consultation is available here and will be open until 25 March 2016.