After a long voting session on several hundred amendments, on Thursday 1 June MEPs adopted their position on the directive introducing due diligence for companies in the European Union by 366 votes to 225, with 38 abstentions.
Lara Wolters (S&D, Dutch), rapporteur for this text, said she was “very satisfied with the result” obtained after the vote, “despite some last-minute manoeuvres”.
Several groups of MEPs from the ECR, ID and EPP groups, as well as some members of the Renew Europe group, tabled amendments calling into question essential parts of the text. Only one of them was finally adopted, slightly modifying the position of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) (see EUROPE 13169/16).
The amendment removes from the text Article 26, which obliges the directors of the companies concerned to implement and supervise actions relating to due diligence and to inform their company’s board of directors.
Questioned by EUROPE, the rapporteur indicated that she would have preferred this article to have been retained in the text. “On the other hand, on a more positive note, we have due diligence in Article 25, which means that managers must take sustainability into account in their decisions”, she added.
Article 25 is just as important as article 26, according to the shadow rapporteur, Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finnish), who also welcomed the outcome of the vote.
For Manon Aubry (The Left, French), also shadow rapporteur, this text makes a real difference, as it guarantees access to justice for victims.
However, the outcome of the vote did not make everyone happy. The representative of employers in the EU, BusinessEurope, regretted that due diligence rules passed by Parliament were “unworkable”. He denounces “over-prescriptive and purely punitive rules that do not distinguish between procedural errors and actual damage”.
On the other hand, the NGO Amnesty International welcomed the vote and, in particular, the access to justice for victims, but regretted that financial services were covered less broadly than proposed by the European Commission.
MEPs also voted in favour of starting interinstitutional negotiations. These are due to start next week, according to Lara Wolters. The discussions promise to be difficult, given the gap between the positions of Parliament and the Council (see EUROPE 13075/1). The inclusion of financial services, civil liability and access to justice will be priorities for the European Parliament, according to Ms Wolters. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)