'Lawyers alarmed as European Parliament committee guts sustainable business rules in political power play'

ClientEarth lawyers are deeply disappointed after the European Parliament legal affairs committee today voted to scrap key corporate sustainability rules – undermining years of efforts to prevent harms such as child labour or pollution in global supply chains.

In a vote to set the Parliament’s position on the so-called first Omnibus, members of the European Parliament have notably agreed to weaken key provisions of the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD)...

This vote follows a week of political trade-offs, during which the European People Party (conservatives) threatened to ally with the far-right to press the Socialists and Democrats into agreeing to a weakened law – just weeks after the Trump administration demanded the law to be scrapped in exchange for a trade deal...

Lawyers regret that the JURI committee adopted amendments to the CSDDD that will set a very low bar for the negotiations with the Council in the trilogue, resulting in the following:

• No harmonised civil liability in the EU until a possible review in 2030. This will drastically reduce access to justice for victims seeking fair compensation for human rights abuses and environmental harm, and will expose companies to varying litigation risks within the EU and an uneven level playing field.
• Severely weakened climate transition plans. Their adoption remains mandatory, but there are no longer requirements for “implementing actions” and only “reasonable” efforts for companies' business models to be compatible with EU climate law and Paris agreements.
• Risk-based due diligence back on the table, but with tight limits on information requests.  
• Reduced scope. Only companies with 5,000 employees and €1.5 billion turnover are covered. That represents a tiny fraction of business actors driving human rights abuses and environmental harm.

Van den Berghe added:

“We are increasingly worried by how polarisation, backroom pressure and breach of democratic safeguards are becoming the norm under the so-called ‘von der Leyen majority’. MEPs must show some backbone and stand up for people and the planet. They must not give in to parties so keen to kowtow to the demands of foreign interests and the Trump administration.”

The next step is the beginning of trilogue negotiations unless the agreed mandate is challenged by a certain number of MEPs.