Responding to the European Commission’s proposal to rewrite the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Beate Beller, campaigner at Global Witness said:
“Commission President von der Leyen’s attack on her own sustainability agenda is disgraceful. Her Commission wants Europe’s biggest polluters to escape having to act on climate, to make sure mining giants can’t be taken to court in Europe for environmental damage or human rights abuses outside the EU, and that all big companies will only have to perform the most basic – and least effective – form of due diligence to clean up their supply chains.
"Corporate lobbyists are trying to paint public interest laws like the CSDDD as being bad for business – but watering them down will only guarantee a more unsafe world for people in Europe and beyond by locking in the climate emergency.
“This total dereliction of responsibility to people and planet – and a free pass for polluters – needs an urgent rethink. The European Parliament and Member States must uphold the original law.”
The Commission’s new proposal would limit the due diligence that companies would need to perform to direct suppliers. In most cases, human rights and environmental abuses occur further down supply chain, meaning they would be much easier to overlook.
The proposal also exempts companies from having to implement climate transition plans, and people from outside the EU would no longer be able to take companies to court in Europe for damages committed outside the European Union.
The European Parliament and Council will now agree their positions on the omnibus proposal, ahead of final negotiations.