Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – European lawmakers are expected on Thursday to back weakening a set of EU environmental and human rights rules, as part of a business-friendly push against red tape that has split parliament. Parliamentarians in Brussels will vote for amendments to the legislation on corporate sustainability, a landmark law hailed by green and civil society groups but loathed by firms, approved last year. The changes, which would significantly reduce its scope of application, are likely to pass — possibly with the support of right and far-right lawmakers, ruffling feathers on the centre and left which see it as an unholy alliance.
“The EPP has refused to move even an inch,” Rene Repasi of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group said of tough negotiations with the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP). An S&D official accused the EPP of “teaming up with the far right to abuse simplification as a smokescreen to push through a dangerous agenda of uncontrolled deregulation”. The text is one of the first to fall under the axe of Brussels’ new drive to make life easier for Europe’s ailing industry, which is struggling in the face of competition from the United States and China.
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) requires large companies to fix the “adverse human rights and environmental impacts” of their supply chains worldwide. This means tracking deforestation and pollution they, as well as their suppliers and subcontractors cause, plus other issues like forced labour — and taking steps to curtail them. EU lawmakers on Thursday are expected to back limiting its application to large companies, upping the threshold to qualify from 1,000 to 5,000 employees and more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in turnover — in line with changes endorsed by member states.
They could also do away with the European civil liability regime, which served to harmonise firms’ obligations in the event of breaches, referring to national legislation instead. Once parliament has voted, an ultimate round of negotiations will kick off with member states and the European Commission aimed at finalising the changes by the end of the year. Jorgen Warborn, an EPP lawmaker who sponsored the text, said the changes would bring greater “predictability” and boost competitiveness for companies while keeping “Europe’s green transition on track”.
But while most groups agreed on the need for tweaks, their extent has proven contentious. Dutch Social Democrat Lara Wolters, who had championed the original law, walked out of talks. Swann Bommier of environmental group Bloom said the proposed amendments would empty the law of its substance. But Stephane Sejourne, the EU Commissioner for industry, said the text came on the back of extensive consultations and in “response to the firm and repeated demands of member states and the new parliamentary majority”.
Right and far-right parties, which made significant gains in the 2024 European elections, have been clamouring for Brussels to take a more pro-business slant and ditch some of its green policies. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had called for the CSDDD, which has come under fire also from trade partners, to be scrapped altogether. The text was proposed by the commission in 2022 after a parliamentary push inspired by the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Bangladesh, which left at least 1,134 people dead. Its approval in 2024 was hailed as historic and celebrated as a landmark in the fight to preserve the planet and better working conditions across the globe.
© 2024 AFP
