'US lobbying reaps its rewards, leaving many EU companies unhappy' writes FT SustainableViews regarding Omnibus vote
'Climate plans out as rightwing MEPs vote to slash EU sustainability rules'
..."There was a demand from the US to delete climate plans, and the climate plans have gone," liberal MEP Pascal Canfin told journalists during a briefing after the vote...
Partner at Sidley Austin in Geneva, Nicolas Lockhart, said that the removal of mandatory climate transition plans from CSDDD would “likely lead to litigation in Member States’ courts to establish a legal duty under the general law for companies to implement an effective climate transition plan”...
In a statement, the EPP said the vote was about "showing our small and medium-sized enterprises, which are struggling to remain competitive, that we have heard their message".
Yet many companies, including SMEs, disagree with the EPP’s version of the facts.
Furniture group Inter Ikea said the CSRD and the CSDDD were “needed to ensure that companies compete on the basis of responsible conduct, that data remains comparable along value chains, and that risks and impacts can be effectively identified, mitigated and reported on”...
Inter Ikea underlined the importance of climate transition plans “as they give companies a practical tool for contributing to the EU’s climate targets”.
Claus Teilmann Petersen, stakeholder engagement and human rights manager at Danish clothing company Bestseller, whose brands include Jack & Jones and Vero Moda, said his company supports the original CSDDD text and its alignment with OECD and UN due diligence guidance...
In October, a letter from the chief executives of TotalEnergies and Siemens to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested that “CEOs call for the full abolishment of CSDDD as a clear and symbolic signal”. It was signed by TotalEnergies and Siemens “in the name” of 46 CEOs participating in the 2025 Franco-German business meeting in Evian, France.
Since then, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and Social LobbyMap have asked another five French and five German companies represented at Evian whether it is their company’s position “to call for the full abolition of the CSDDD”.
The centre published the companies’ reactions on Thursday and said none of those that had provided a response favoured abolishing the directive. They include BNP Paribas, food company Danone, carmaker BMW and chemicals firm BASF...
Politicians, academics and campaigners also drew attention to the potential wider implications of the vote.
Canfin said it is “the first time in the history of EU democracy” that an EU law will be negotiated where the parliament’s position has been agreed by a majority of right and extreme-right MEPs...
“The EU’s self-imposed deregulatory push appears unstoppable, at least for now,” said [Alberto] Alemanno[, Jean Monnet professor of EU Law at HEC Paris and democracy fellow at Harvard University]. He forecasts “a wave of litigation . . . which will paradoxically condemn Europe to the unpredictability that the EU simplification agenda meant to avoid”.
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