EU countries block the law that requires companies to have greater respect for human rights and the environment

This Wednesday, EU states blocked the ratification of the European law that would force large companies to better ensure respect for human rights, especially child exploitation, and the environment, throughout their supply chains. .

For the second time in less than 20 days, the Belgian presidency of the EU Council has admitted that it has not managed to gather the qualified majority necessary to advance the directive which, in view of the upcoming dissolution of the European Parliament and the calling of elections in June, is in danger of not being adopted during this mandate, leaving it in a dangerous legislative limbo.

Something that, warn the numerous NGOs, politicians, unions and even companies that support the regulations, also puts at risk the “credibility” of the EU in matters of human rights and its negotiating reliability.

“The time for political posturing is over, it is time for solutions,” claimed the European Parliament's rapporteur for the directive, Lara Wolters, from Strasbourg.

The Dutch social democrat has criticized the fact that the governments of Germany, France or Italy – identified as those that, due to their greater weight, have greater responsibility in this blockade – “have the big business

lobbies

on speed dial , but do not listen to citizens”, which has widely demanded this directive, as demonstrated by a collection of signatures in this regard that gathered more than 100,000 supports.

“It is outrageous, this law should be a global reference to encourage corporate responsibility,” Wolters denounced at a press conference.

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) establishes a series of obligations for large companies regarding “current and potentially adverse” human rights and environmental impacts of their own operations, but also of its subsidiaries and those carried out by its business partners, and provides for fines of up to a value of no less than 5% of the net worldwide business volume of the offending company.

The initial blockade of the directive, whose provisional text was agreed at the end of the year by the European Parliament and the Council, that is, the States, together with the European Commission in the so-called trilogues after long negotiations, came from Germany.

Already during the first negotiating session of the representatives of the States, on February 9, Berlin stopped the proposal for the first time, due to pressure from the liberal FDP party that is part of Olaf Scholz's government coalition.

But since then, several key countries such as Italy or France have joined the blockade, which, with their objections to the current text or even a threat of abstention, in this case equivalent to a no, prevent the directive from achieving the qualified majority it requires to be approved. ratified (55% of Member States representing 65% of the total EU population).

As the French NGO Friends of the Earth had denounced on the eve of the new meeting, France wanted to increase the size of the companies that would be affected by this regulation.

Something that, the organization warned, would cause the law to end up excluding more than 80% of the companies that the directive seeks to force to behave more responsibly in matters of human rights and the environment, making it, therefore, practically irrelevant.

According to the originally negotiated text, the directive will affect large corporations, with a turnover of more than 150 million euros and more than 500 employees, as well as smaller ones — with 250 employees and a turnover of 40 million. — if at least half of that turnover is generated in sectors that are especially sensitive to environmental violations or child exploitation, such as textiles, mining, agriculture (including fishing and logging) or construction.

The rules must also be complied with by non-European companies and their parent companies with a turnover of 300 million euros in the EU, although the directive will only apply to them three years after its entry into force.

In total, according to diplomatic sources, around a dozen countries said this Wednesday that they would abstain and one more opposed the text, alleging, among others, legal uncertainty, administrative burden or fear of a lack of equal conditions at the global level. which led the current presidency to once again withdraw the directive.

“We have to consider the situation and see if it is possible to consider the concerns raised by some Member States, in consultation with the European Parliament,” the Belgian presidency said in a statement sent by X (former Twitter).

Damage to “credibility”

From Strasbourg, MEP Wolters said that the European Parliament will wait to know in detail what the States want to change before making a statement, but warned of the damage to the “credibility” that the States are causing, something that Germany has already done in several times since last year due to internal clashes in Scholz's government coalition, made up of Social Democrats, Greens and the Liberals that have caused the brakes in Brussels.

“Going back on commitments or including new demands demonstrates a flagrant lack of respect for the European Parliament as a legislator and undermines the trust necessary to achieve agreements,” Wolters warned.

“EU governments' last-minute sabotage of these rules not only disrespects the lives, communities and ecosystems affected by destructive business practices, but is also a blow to the EU's credibility as a legislator.” ”, the WWF organization has also stated.

For their part, a group of 136 European civil organizations and unions have issued a joint statement calling the countries' blockade a "deplorable setback for corporate accountability and the protection of human rights and the environment around the world." ”.

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