The Commission wants to oblige European companies to check their supply chains closely in future in order to prevent violations of environmental or human rights. The consequences for the economy are gigantic.
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hmk. Brussels ⋅ When the federal government agreed on its supply chain law last year, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders commented benevolently in an interview with the FAZ. At the same time, however, he made it clear that the EU Commission would not be satisfied with the supply chain law it had announced. But the legislative proposal itself has been a long time coming. It was repeatedly postponed, also because Reynders was too ambitious for some in Brussels to hold European companies responsible for monitoring environmental, climate and human rights violations in third countries. But now the time has come: in the middle of the week, Reynders will present a proposal against which the German law actually comes across as downright modest.
Reynders wants to oblige all but the smallest companies to check their entire supply chain for suppliers violating environmental, climate and human rights. What’s more, under certain circumstances, they should also be liable for violations by companies involved in their supply chain. This emerges from a current draft of the law, which is available to the FAZ. The draft also mentions the 1.5 degree target of the Paris climate agreement as a reference. In addition, Reynders wants to link the bonus payments for managers directly to the monitoring of the supply chain. The text could still change before the final presentation, the commission said on Monday. But the core shouldn’t be touched anymore.
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