European Union
Disagreement in the German coalition led to Belgium postponing the approval of the duty of care law by the EU member states on Friday. An agreement has been reached on new emission standards for trucks.
Friday, February 9, 2024 at 5:00 PM
With the so-called duty of care, the European Union wants to make large companies more responsible for any abuses in their supply chain. Consider, for example, a European clothing company that will no longer be able to look away if human rights are violated in Asian textile factories that supply them, or oil companies that cause environmental damage in Africa.
The European Parliament and the EU member states had previously reached an agreement on this. But the new directive is still in danger of being defeated in the final stages, after its adoption by the EU member states – which was scheduled for Friday – was postponed because it was in danger of not being approved. First, despite its initial support for the directive, Germany announced this week that it would abstain because there was no consensus on it within the German government. Italy subsequently also announced that it would abstain. Without those two large blocs, almost no qualified majority would be possible.
Belgium, which is temporarily president of the Council of the EU, will now refine the proposal for the directive in the hope of having it approved before the European legislature ends in June.
In Germany, the liberal coalition party FDP in particular needs to be convinced of this. It was the FDP, which flirted with the electoral threshold in polls, which retraced its steps at the last minute and continued to obstruct. As a result, there was no consensus in Berlin and Germany had to abstain in Europe. This was much to the frustration of her green coalition partner. “The fact that Germany is now abstaining in the final stretch, despite previous approval, damages our reliability as a partner and our weight in Europe,” Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday.
Trucks
The introduction of new European emission standards for heavy trucks was also jeopardized last week by the last minute resistance of the German liberals. These standards were approved by the Member States on Friday. If the European Parliament also gives the green light, the new law will come into force and heavy trucks will have to reduce their emissions by 90 percent by 2040. (K the)
