The European Commission decided on Wednesday 1 June to register a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled ‘Good Clothes, Fair Pay’.
The initiative calls on the Commission to propose legislation obliging companies operating in the clothing and footwear sector to exercise due diligence with regard to living wages in their supply chains. The organisers list six objectives of the due diligence, including: mitigating negative impacts on human rights, reducing poverty, combating child labour and prohibiting unfair trade practices.
At this stage, the Commission has not analysed the substance of the proposal. The organisers have 6 months to start collecting signatures. If, within a year, the ECI receives one million statements of support from at least seven different Member States, the Commission will have to react. It could decide whether or not to grant the request and would be required to explain its reasoning.
10 years. On 2 June, ECI celebrated its tenth anniversary (https://aeur.eu/f/1wu ). Over 16 million citizens participated in 90 initiatives. So far, six initiatives have reached the one million supporter threshold and four more are close to doing so. Three initiatives have led to changes in European legislation. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)