Several members of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) have expressed their impatience for a concrete proposal to ban forced labour products from the Internal Market (see EUROPE 12897/6). This was a promise made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and by the EU Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovkis, they said on Monday 21 March. The Chair of the parliamentary committee said that he had been informed that the proposal would be presented before September this year.
“We need to see this urgently”, said the rapporteur, Barry Andrews (Renew Europe, Ireland). His colleague Marek Belka (S&D, Poland) added: “I hope that this legislative proposal will not be postponed unnecessarily. He referred to the multiple postponements of the presentation of the proposal for a directive on corporate due diligence (see EUROPE 12897/7). Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finland) said she had seen a letter from the EPP group to the European Commission asking for the publication to be postponed.
The discussion in which the MEPs took part concerned precisely this text on corporate due diligence and sustainable governance. They have raised their expectations: the scope of the directive seems to be a central point of the future negotiations.
The Renew Europe, S&D, Greens/EFA and The Left groups argue that too few companies will be covered by the directive proposed by the Commission. Only 1% of European companies would be targeted. For the rapporteur, Barry Andrews, this is too little. He raised the fact that the Commission’s impact assessment proposed an option covering also medium-sized companies for high risk sectors. “I would like to know why the European Commission chose to limit the scope”, he questioned.
The Commission explained that, although the proposal covered only some 13,000 companies, these accounted for about 50% of the market share. The choice to limit the scope to the largest companies is based on the need for proportionality, according to Salla Saastamoinen, Director for Civil and Commercial Justice at the European Commission’s DG Justice.
Angelika Winzig (EPP, Austria) also stated that small and medium-sized enterprises should not be overburdened with the obligations arising from the directive. She welcomed the compromise proposed by the Commission. The European Conservative and Reformist groups, as well as ID, did not speak on the subject during the debate. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)