As of: February 2, 2024, 6:16 p.m
By: Andreas Höß
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Press
Split
The EU is preparing a supply chain law.
She wants to prevent child labor and environmental pollution.
But FDP leader Lindner stands in the way.
Munich - It's almost a tradition: the federal government agrees to a compromise in Brussels - and the FDP, which is also in the traffic light coalition, abandons it shortly afterwards.
After the AI directive and the law to phase out combustion engines, this has now happened again with the planned EU supply chain law, which the EU had actually already agreed on in December.
A legal text is currently being drawn up for the law, which is intended to prevent child labor and environmental pollution.
However, Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann no longer want to support the planned law.
“In the Council of the European Union, this results in Germany abstaining, which ultimately has the effect of a no vote,” write the FDP ministers.
They criticize the fact that companies should in future be liable under civil law for violations of the EU Supply Chain Act and face penalties of up to five percent of annual sales; this is not the case with the German Supply Chain Act.
In addition, the obligations should also apply to medium-sized companies with 500 or more employees; the German counterpart applies to 1,000 or more employees.
According to the FDP ministers, this leads to more bureaucracy, puts a burden on medium-sized businesses and endangers German and European competitiveness.
Justice Minister Buschmann and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (both FDP) are against the EU supply chain law.
© Johannes Neudecker/dpa
FDP rejects EU supply chain law due to criticism from business
The FDP's no is a reaction to the protest from German business associations.
In January, the BDI industry association, the employers' associations, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the craft association called on the federal government to overturn the law.
There is also criticism from Bavaria's economy, for example from the Association for Mechanical and Plant Engineering (VDMA).
For large systems with thousands of parts, it is “almost impossible” to provide evidence of all preliminary products, said VDMA chairman Bertram Kawlath, also head of the valve manufacturer Schubert & Salzer.
He is bothered by the fact that not only direct suppliers, but also second and third-tier suppliers should be checked.
That is unrealistic.
“When I order circuit boards in Asia and demand proof of which mines the metals on the circuit boards installed there come from, they only give me a bird,” Kawlath told the
Münchner Merkur
.
There is ridicule from the opposition about the renewed traffic light crash
The opposition scoffed at the dispute in the government.
Once again “the traffic lights in Brussels are in disgrace” because they do not have a common position, said European MP Angelika Niebler (CSU).
Nevertheless, she is pleased that “at least the FDP has come to its senses.”
We warned from the beginning about the bureaucratic burdens caused by the law.
SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dagmar Schmidt, however, called on the FDP to “give up its blockade stance”.
By turning around, Germany is losing trust in Europe.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) offered his coalition partner a compromise: According to this, parts of the German supply chain law should be suspended in favor of EU rules so that there are no double reporting obligations.
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It is unclear whether the supply chain law will receive a majority without German approval, according to Brussels.
If there is to be a decision before the European elections in June, a compromise would have to be reached in the next few days.
If the EU law really fails, this will not necessarily be a competitive advantage for the German economy.
It would then have to be the only one in Europe to adhere to a supply chain law: namely the German one introduced by the grand coalition.