Negotiations over the last few days have failed to produce an agreement between the Christian Democrat Group (EPP) and the other groups forming the ‘von der Leyen’ majority - S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA - ahead of the crucial vote on Thursday 13 November on the simplification of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). On Wednesday 12 November, the EPP reportedly confirmed that its members would vote on the amendments tabled by the EPP and nothing else. These amendments are expected to win the support of the sovereignist (ECR) and far-right (PfE) groups in the House, and therefore a majority of votes.
Over the last two weeks, the Social Democrats, centre-right MEPs (Renew Europe) and environmentalists (Greens/EFA) had reached out to the Christian Democrats (EPP) with a new compromise that agreed to abandon corporate liability in the ‘CSDDD’ (see EUROPE 13746/19).
In exchange, the three groups asked for the threshold for companies covered by the Directive to be lowered (to 3,000 employees and a revenue of €750 million), compared with the compromise initially reached and voted on in the Committee on Legal Affairs, which set a threshold of 5,000 employees and a revenue of €1.5 billion (see EUROPE 13729/18).
The rapporteur, Jörgen Warborn (EPP, Swedish), who supports a massive simplification of the rules for businesses, rejected the proposal, although he did indicate that he could make a gesture on the number of employees, reducing it from 3,000 to 4,000. He said he was firm regarding €1.5 billion in revenue.
Such a solution is too far removed from the position of the other three pro-European groups. As a result, they expect to see the EPP voting for amendments in concert with the far right, betraying for the first time on a legislative text the spirit of the political majority that re-elected Mrs von der Leyen to head the European Commission.
Some were still hoping on Wednesday evening that a last-minute agreement might still be possible. Under Parliament rules, several political groups may table compromise amendments at the last minute, if there is a credible chance of obtaining a majority, in order to avoid voting on several hundred amendments.
“Parliament must have the strength to find a common position within the democratic centre”, argued German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) on his arrival at the Eurogroup meeting on 12 November. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with Mathieu Bion)