Work is progressing on the omnibus directive, which will amend the texts on corporate due diligence (CSDDD) and sustainable reporting (CSRD). The Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU has already proposed an initial compromise to the other Member States, which they will consider on Friday 25 April. The Polish Presidency hopes to make rapid progress towards the adoption of an EU Council position. With this in mind, it proposes few changes to the European Commission’s proposal (see EUROPE 13588/4).
In its compromise of 16 April, the Polish Presidency of the EU Council did not go back on the scope of the two directives, i.e. the number of companies subject to the obligations.
With regard to the CSDDD in particular, the withdrawal of civil liability for companies at European level is not called into question either. The Polish Presidency is proposing to keep the Commission’s proposal, even though some countries were not in favour of it and preferred to keep the directive as it stands in order to avoid a patchwork of judicial decisions within the 27 Member States.
On the other hand, the Polish Presidency has put forward a number of proposals that run counter to the Commission’s reduction of obligations. This applies, for example, to corporate due diligence beyond their direct trading partners in the value chain. While the Commission has largely limited the cases in which a company must monitor its indirect partners, the Polish Presidency suggests extending this possibility slightly, by proposing more sources of information that attest to violations by indirect partners.
Another example is the Polish Presidency’s proposal to reintroduce the obligation to suspend a commercial relationship when efforts to prevent or eliminate negative impacts have not borne fruit.
To see the Presidency’s draft compromise: https://aeur.eu/f/ghj
Complaints from NGOs about the process. In addition, on Friday 18 April, eight NGOs lodged a complaint with the European Ombudsman, Teresa Anjinho, against the European Commission and the way it has drawn up its omnibus simplification package in recent months. These organisations claim that the process was non-transparent and undemocratic.
They believe that only a small group of industries have been able to make their interests heard and push for the “deregulation of several major pieces of sustainable legislation”. According to the eight organisations, the consultation meetings with stakeholders were dominated by the interests of the oil and gas industry.
In particular, the absence of any public consultation as such has been called into question, as has the lack of an impact assessment on the climate neutrality goals.
The NGOs behind the complaint are: ClientEarth, Anti-Slavery International, Clean Clothes Campaign, European Coalition for Corporate Justice, Friends of the Earth Europe, Global Witness, Notre Affaire À Tous and Transport & Environment (T&E). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)