EU countries block the law that requires companies to have greater respect for human rights and the environment. The Belgian presidency recognizes that it cannot get the Twenty-Seven to ratify the agreement reached with the European Parliament.

“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. In total, according to diplomatic sources, around a dozen countries said that they would abstain and one more opposed.