European lawmakers have backed the weakening of flagship EU environmental and human rights rules as part of a drive to slash red tape for businesses. The move will free many corporations from the obligation to fix human rights and environmental issues in their supply chains or face EU fines.
Approved only last year, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was hailed by green and civil society groups but criticised by businesses.
In a vote on Thursday, the EU parliament's biggest centre-right bloc joined forces with the hard right to back amendments that significantly reduce the number of companies to which the rules apply. They secured support from 382 lawmakers, with 249 voting against.
The directive is one of the first to fall under Brussels' new drive to make life easier for European industry, which is struggling in the face of competition from the United States and China.
The text requires large companies to fix the "adverse human rights and environmental impacts" of their supply chains worldwide. This means tracking deforestation and pollution that they or their suppliers and subcontractors cause, plus other issues like forced labour – and taking steps to curtail them.
But EU lawmakers backed limiting its application to large companies. Now only businesses with 5,000 employees and more than €1.5 billion in turnover will be bound by the rules, a revision of the original threshold of 1,000 employees and €450 million in turnover.
They also moved to do away with the European civil liability regime, which served to harmonise firms' obligations in the event of breaches, referring to national legislation instead.
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Right-wing push
Jorgen Warborn, a lawmaker from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) who sponsored the text, said ahead of the vote that the changes would boost competitiveness for companies while keeping "Europe's green transition on track".
But the outcome triggered an outcry among the EPP's traditional partners on the left and centre, who denounced what they fear is a new alliance between the centre and the far right in the EU parliament.
René Repasi of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) accused the EPP of having "torpedoed any middle-ground compromise".
"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," he said.
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The far-right Patriots group hailed the result as a "significant success" and a "victory for workers, farmers and industry".
"Today, Patriots for Europe broke the old coalition's deadlock and opened the path to replace the Green Deal straitjacket with a competitiveness-driven agenda," the group wrote on social media platform X, referring to the EU's ambitious climate policies.
An ultimate round of negotiations is now to kick off with member states and the European Commission, aimed at finalising the changes by the end of the year.
Landmark law
Stéphane Séjourne, the EU commissioner for industry, said the amendments came on the back of extensive consultations and in "response to the firm and repeated demands of member states and the new parliamentary majority".
Right and far-right parties, which made significant gains in the 2024 European elections, have been clamouring for Brussels to take a more pro-business slant and ditch some of its green policies.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had called for the CSDDD to be scrapped altogether. The directive has also come under fire from trade partners including the United States and Qatar, who warn the rules risk disrupting their gas supplies to Europe.
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The World Wildlife Fund accused the EU of "turning its back on climate and nature" in the name of simplification.
"These laws that provided hope, security, and promise for a fairer and more sustainable future have been reduced to performative exercises that have little effect on the real needs of people, nature, and businesses," said Mariana Ferreira of the WWF's European policy office.
The text was proposed by the European Commission in 2022 after a parliamentary push inspired by the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Bangladesh, which left at least 1,134 people dead.
Its approval in 2024 was hailed as historic and celebrated as a landmark in the fight to preserve the planet and promote better working conditions across the globe.
(with AFP)
