Meeting on Friday 19 January to discuss the third compromise text proposed by the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, the Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) agreed that several details of the regulation prohibiting products made with forced labour still needed to be ‘fine-tuned’ before it could be validated.
Although the latest version of the revised regulation was due to be unanimously approved (see EUROPE 13330/1), several Member States decided to give themselves extra time before starting negotiations with Parliament. The rules will reportedly be discussed again at the next meeting on 26 January.
The Commission’s role in setting up investigations and the administrative burden of legislation on companies are among the points that need to be reviewed. According to several sources, there is a middle ground to be found regarding the power that the Commission can hold within the investigation process. At present, the compromise places the Commission as the main player in the regulation, from the preliminary checks to the envisaged sanctions.
On the technical side, the link between this regulation and the directive governing corporate due diligence (see EUROPE 13331/23) has yet to be finalised. A number of countries would also like to be able to incorporate consumer rights more fully, particularly as regards the origin of products.
However, this one-week postponement pushes back the start of the interinstitutional negotiations to February, and in order to adopt the text in line with the legislative timetable, the first trilogue must be held before 9 February. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)