A new law on supply chains has been passed by the European Union ( ) after weeks of negotiations, as international instruments note, as Member States have today ratified the new landmark rules requiring companies to check for unpleasant environmental and industrial practices the supply chains. MEPs and government officials in the EU have concluded a trial agreement on supply chains on the directive on due diligence for corporate sustainability, or CSDDD, in December – but its future has been called into question following last-minute hesitations by Germany and Italy. Now the measures seem likely to go into law, since Italy approved a stripped version of the legislation at a regular diploma meeting in Brussels. Environmental and social organizations such as Oxfam and Amnesty International say rules will prevent companies from earning profits from human suffering. The Commission has also announced that it will help ensure that companies are not “lost” between multiple, potentially incompatible, national rules within the single market. However, in order to reach an agreement, the latest version of the law does not contain provisions on civil liability that would allow unions to sue non-compliant companies, a controversial measure to which countries such as Finland opposed. In addition, it is noted that last amendments introduced within the scope of the CSDDD increase the annual turnover of a company from EUR 300 million to EUR 450 million compared to the draft was released last week. According to preliminary data analysed by the Multinational Companies Research Centre (SOMO) only 5,421 companies will now fall within the scope of the current project, a 67% reduction from the 16,389 provisionally agreed in the European Parliament and the EU Council in December.
EU: New law on sustainable supply chains passed
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