“Macron’s U-turn against EU green rules triggers internal revolt”

…Emmanuel Macron’s new crusade against European green rules is causing outrage, even among his allies.

Heavyweights from the French president’s camp are speaking out against a push by Paris to water down upcoming European Union rules requiring companies to report on their environmental footprint and potential human rights violations in their supply chains.

They complain that France has betrayed its reputation as one of Europe's loudest green champions, and warn that yielding to anti-green pressure from business groups and from countries outside the EU — most notably the United States — will not serve the interests of France or the EU in the long run.

“We are aiming at the wrong target,” Macronist lawmaker and former minister Olivia Grégoire told POLITICO in defense of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive…

In a confidential note last month revealed by POLITICO, France urged the European Commission to delay indefinitely a new EU directive on corporate due diligence (CSDDD) and to delay the CSRD by two years …

A French industry lobbyist with direct knowledge of the negotiation, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, said they had been "positively surprised" by the evolution of the French position, and that Macron's office had played a key role in that change…