The report on the corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDD) will be put to the vote in the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on Tuesday 25 April.
The text’s negotiator, Lara Wolters (S&D, Dutch), rapporteur, said she was confident that her report would be adopted, despite there being differing views in the majority groups over several compromise amendments. When talking to the press on Monday 24 April, she said she was very pleased that they had reached what she believes to be a beneficial text for companies, victims and the environment, ten years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh.
The negotiating team agreed last week on a set of compromise amendments after long hours of discussion (see EUROPE 13164/4), even though some groups are not entirely convinced by several key elements of the text.
One such example of this is the obligations of company directors and the link between a part of their variable remuneration and the fulfilment of these obligations. According to several sources, the EPP group remains reluctant to include such an option in the directive.
Lara Wolters noted that the wording ultimately used by the negotiators reflected the position of the Environment Committee, which adopted its draft opinion a few weeks ago.
The inclusion of financial service providers in the scope of the directive could also be the subject of a close vote in the JURI Committee, with the EPP remaining divided as well as diverging positions at Renew Europe.
In order to reach an agreement last week, the rapporteur still had to make some concessions and abandon, for example, the reversal of evidence, which she had strongly supported. “Insisting upon this point, which was a red line for the EPP and Renew Europe, would have risked derailing the whole text and that was not reasonable”, Lara Wolters told EUROPE.
The lower cap for companies operating in high-risk sectors was also abandoned, leaving a single cap for all companies. However, Lara Wolters has managed to lower the amount of the cap compared to the original proposal, therefore impacting more companies (see EUROPE 13164/4). She also convinced her colleagues to broaden the definition of the value chain to which the directive applies.
“Absolutely I would have liked more, but I think within the context I’m pleased with the compromise we’ve got”, she said.
In order to avoid negotiating the text with the EU Council during the campaign for the 2024 European elections, Ms Wolters aims to reach an agreement with the institution by the end of the year. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)