'Implementation of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: Expectations regarding the supervisory authority's independence' [unofficial electronic translation based on German original, available in full for download above]

...The experience gained from [the German supervisory authority] BAFA’s practical implementation of the [existing German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act] LkSG clearly shows that an authority bound by instructions may, and will, run the risk of no longer being able to carry out its statutory duties independently when dealing with politically contentious issues such as corporate due diligence obligations. Article 24(9) of the CSDDD expressly requires legal and functional independence, as well as freedom from any direct or indirect external influence. Case law from the European Court of Justice confirms that even the mere possibility of political influence is contrary to this requirement.

As Initiative Lieferkettengesetz, we therefore call on the Federal Government and the Bundestag to establish, when implementing the CSDDD, an independent supreme/highest federal authority with authority over its own staff, secure funding and subject only to parliamentary and judicial oversight. Only in this way can the effective and lasting enforcement of human rights and environmental protection in global supply chains be guaranteed.

See also Germany: Legal opinion finds current framework for due diligence oversight does not meet CSDDD requirements