Regulations on forced labor – Interview with Nicolas Chandellier
L’ESMC published an open letter in early January 2024 in favor of strict European regulation against forced labor. CARBON is among the 39 European manufacturers in the photovoltaic sector who co-signed this letter. Interview with Nicolas Chandellier, Managing Director of CARBON.
Why is it urgent to implement strict regulations regarding forced labor in Europe?
To date, approximately 28 million people worldwide are subject to forced labor and it is estimated that the PV industry is the 4th most exposed to forced labor, after electronics, textiles and oil. webbed.
Since at least 2017, the international community has been aware of the existence of the use of forced labor of Uyghurs in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. Several institutional reports and high-level university studies also point in this direction.
Faced with this, the urgency is to guarantee control of imports of goods into Europe, in order to prohibit entry of any product with content based on forced labor, at all stages of the value chain.
As such, the European Union regulation relating to forced labor, which was the subject of great transpartisan mobilization in the European Parliament, must allow Europe to assert itself as an economic and commercial power that fully respects human and social rights.
You are 39 European manufacturers of photovoltaic products to have signed the forum of theEuropean Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC). Is this advocacy more widely shared throughout the sector?
As detailed in the ESMC forum, which we co-signed, the version of the regulation resulting from the European Parliament goes in the right direction. We support, for example, the reversal of the burden of proof requiring companies suspected to prove that they have not used forced labor, particularly for products originating from high-risk geographic areas.
The European Commission should also have the mandate to open and investigate investigations following the filing of a complaint. It could rely on information provided by NGOs, associations, institutions, elected officials or whistleblowers.
Finally, we call for accelerated implementation of the regulation. We must, without delay, break this model which has made workers around the world suffer for too long and, moreover, constitutes a threat to European businesses.
A regulation as ambitious as this will necessarily cause real changes within the sector. I do not doubt for a single moment that the sector as a whole (producers of raw materials, manufacturers, developers, operators, etc.) will be able to adapt to revive, in Europe, a responsible and sustainable solar industry which guarantees respect for the best social and environmental standards and traceability across the entire value chain. At CARBON, this is in any case our constant commitment.
Could this regulation be a first step towards putting an end to a distortion of competition at the expense of European companies?
The priority is to stop the use of forced labor around the world. L’HIM has set itself the goal of eradicating this scourge by 2030 but, at the same time, the International Labor Organization (ILO) provides elements which seem to push back this objective and testify to an increase in slavery modern in recent years. There is an urgent need to act quickly. The European Union must give itself the means. It’s up to us, collectively, to rise to the challenge.
Although the solar industry is at the forefront of the fight against climate change and the energy transition, this in no way relieves it of its social obligations in terms of human rights. It is also a question of protecting European manufacturers who comply with the highest social and environmental standards in the world, in a context of unfair competition accentuated by this forced labor in other areas of the globe. There should therefore not be an inch of room for the import of products resulting from forced labor within the European Union.
2024-02-16 01:37:05
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