"Cocoa coalition outlines its proposals for ambitious EU legislation to benefit farmers, producer countries and consumers", 18 October 2021

Consistently with the position we announced in 2019, the signatories to this position paper believe that the introduction of mandatory EU-wide due diligence legislation can have a positive impact in driving the necessary transformation of the cocoa and chocolate sector. We therefore call on the European Commission to bring forward two pieces of legislation. We call on DG Justice & Consumers to finalise proposals for human rights and environmental due diligence across companies’ entire operations and supply chains. The legislation should require companies to work with their suppliers and supply-chain partners in producer countries to identify, address and report on risks in their supply chains rather than abandon or avoid high-risk sources of cocoa.

The criteria underlying the due diligence obligation should aim to ensure respect for the laws of the producer country, human and labour rights, including the right to an adequate standard of living, rights of land tenure and access, and environmental sustainability. We also call on DG Environment to come forward with proposals for due diligence legislation to minimise the risk of deforestation associated with cocoa products placed on the EU market, and to extend this to include forest degradation and ecosystem harm. Both pieces of legislation should be implemented as uniformly as possible across the EU, avoiding a patchwork of different member-state approaches, and should cover companies irrespective of their size – this is fundamental in the cocoa and chocolate sector to avoid distortion and maximise impact, given its fragmentation.

They should be enforced by government agencies with sufficient powers and resources, and contain dissuasive penalties and access to remedies, in order to help drive real change in the sector. We believe that all companies in the cocoa sector must implement such due diligence obligations; they are well-placed to generate and protect social and environmental benefits through due diligence efforts. For the legislation to be fully effective it needs to be coupled with the strengthening of the enabling environment for sustainable cocoa farming on the ground, and we therefore also call on the European Commission to pursue the establishment of bilateral partnership agreements between the EU and cocoa-producing countries...