Today, in a vote on the so-called Sustainability Omnibus, the conservative European People's Party Group (EPP Group) and far-right groups in the European Parliament joined forces to erase the main pillars from a law to ensure companies are made responsible for the damage they cause to people and the planet. The Omnibus includes the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) legislation.
Adopted in the last mandate, the CSDDD was widely hailed as setting a new gold standard in obliging companies, both inside and outside the EU, to take responsibility for the impact of their activities on human rights and the environment in their subsidiaries and supply chains. Forced labour and child labour, land grabbing (including from indigenous communities), pollution, and the destruction of the environment – with the due diligence law, companies would finally have been held responsible for violations of human rights and environmental standards.
The S&D Group is committed to simplifying laws to make the lives of citizens and businesses easier but will not support an uncontrolled deregulation agenda, which would destroy European standards and rules that we have adopted democratically very recently. European businesses need legal certainty and planning security if they are to thrive and lead in the global race for competitiveness. The S&D Group is committed to working with pro-European forces and throughout the negotiation process worked hard to find balanced compromises. We regret that the EPP decided to slide out of the pro-European majority to join forces with the climate sceptic and Eurosceptic far right.
René Repasi, S&D coordinator for the committee on legal affairs and shadow rapporteur for the Sustainability Omnibus, said:
"After fighting for a pro-European compromise among the democratic parties of the European Parliament, tirelessly and until the very bitter end, I am deeply disappointed by the outcome of today's vote. The EPP negotiator rejected our genuine efforts at every turn and torpedoed any middle-ground compromise. Instead, the conservatives marched ahead with a red pen – striking away the firewall and redrawing their self-made majority together with the anti-democratic forces on the fringes.
"That is why we voted against the text, which would have been nothing but a further diluted version of a once-ambitious sustainability agenda. We refuse to serve as a fig leaf for a far-right agenda hiding behind the smokescreen of EPP amendments.
"The conservative EPP is advancing a dangerous new narrative – one that pits competitiveness against sustainability, as if these were antitheses. However, Europe's economic survival in the long run depends on fuelling a green and digital transition, not hindering it – as nationalists and right-wing extremists are doing. The short-sightedness we saw at play today will risk leaving our European companies stranded in the global race for industrial progress. The EPP will have to answer to Europeans about what happened today."
Ana Catarina Mendes, S&D vice-president, said:
"Today, the conservative EPP killed sustainability reporting obligations for companies and due diligence rules by collaborating with the Eurosceptic far right. By teaming up with the far right, they are implementing a Trumpist agenda without rules and obligations, dismantling our EU standards and our model of society built on values such as accountability, protection, and rights.
"We have made all efforts to work towards a compromise that would save the backbone of the legislation. It is regrettable that while a good compromise between simplification and protecting our people could be found for agriculture and defence, this was not possible for the EPP on sustainability. The EPP has to ask themselves if they really want to tie themselves to extremist, far right forces for short-term gain."