Germany: Executives of Aldi Süd, Otto, Ritter Sport & other companies write to Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, endorsing CSDDD in reaction to Evian letter
Unofficial summary translation of German original 'Plötzlich fordern Unternehmer: Finger weg vom Lieferkettengesetz' published in FOCUS+ [subscription needed for full article access]:
...One week before the vote in the EU Parliament, 21 board members, managing directors, and executives from various companies sent a letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD)... The signatories included companies from a wide range of industries, including Otto Group, retailer Aldi Süd, chocolate manufacturer Alfred Ritter, leisure goods supplier Vaude, GLS Bank, and SMA Solar Technology. They warn that "the currently proposed abolition of binding and uniform regulations ... would be counterproductive" for competitiveness, growth, and innovation...
The letter from the 21 refers – without naming it – to another letter sent in October to German Chancellor Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron by Siemens CEO Roland Busch and the CEO of French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné. They called for the immediate abolition of the EU due diligence directive "on behalf of 46 CEOs." The catch: as it gradually emerged, many of these CEOs had not even seen the letter, let alone signed it.
According to information from FOCUS, at least 15 of the companies named in the letter have by now made clear that they do not support the call to abolish the due diligence directive...
