All over the world, unregulated globalization and unchecked corporate predation over people, workers and natural resources are causing massive human rights violations and environmental harm.
Rogue transnational companies, most of which are located in the Global North, take advantage of legal gaps, weak enforcement of rules and insufficient international cooperation to profit from abuse mostly committed in the Global South. The voluntary standards adopted thus far by companies and States have proved largely inefficient to prevent and adequately address human rights and environmental harm.
On the 23rd of February, the European Commission published its long awaited proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. To the dismay of many parliamentarians, civil society and victims of corporate abuse, the proposal contains too many major loopholes to address corporate human rights and environmental abuses. This proposal represents a victory for corporate lobbies who succeeded in stripping the proposal of its teeth.
The European Commission proposed legislation is a far cry from the degree of scrutiny of supply chains demanded by the European Parliament In March 2021. The resolution adopted by the European Parliament called for an ambitious European legislation that would require companies to address and account for the human rights and environmental harm occurring in their entire value chain.
The resolution also called on the European Union to adopt a mandate and get actively involved in the ongoing negotiations of UN the Human Rights Council for an international instrument on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with respect to human rights. The proposition by the European Commission falls short of those objectives.
It is highly disappointing that the approach chosen by the Commission deviates from current international standards, severely restricts companies’ obligations and accountability, and fails to address victims’ barriers to access justice. In particular, it relies disproportionately on contractual assurances and offers a quasi-immunity for undertakings that have put in place generic contractual clauses, regardless of the actual efforts made to prevent and address harm.
This reliance on contractual clauses and the restriction of corporate responsibility to “established business relationships” de facto limits corporate obligations to a very small portion of their value chains. Combined with a narrow scope covering only very large companies and few large companies in high risk sectors, the proposed directive would fail to address most human rights and environmental abuse in European companies’ value chains.
Finally, the proposal doesn’t address well-known obstacles for victims to access justice such as the allocation of the burden of proof, the need to prove strict causality between a breach of due diligence obligations and the harm suffered, the lack of access to evidence or the allocation of legal costs.
We, former and current members of parliaments from all continents, underline the urgency to significantly address the massive and systemic human rights and environmental harms occurring in corporate value chains.
We urge the European Commission, the Member States and the European Parliament to address the severe loopholes of the European Commission’s proposal and work toward a Directive that can effectively prevent and address corporate abuse and provide access to justice for victims.
In that regard, we underline that legislators should better take into consideration relevant international standards and the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in March 2021.
We also stress that international cooperation is essential and urge the European Union to engage constructively into the ongoing negotiations at the UN Human Rights Council for an international binding instrument on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with respect to human rights.
- Manon Aubry, Co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament
- Ubaldo Aita, Member of the Parliament of Uruguay
- François Alfonsi, Member of the European Parliament
- Martha Lisbeth Alfonso Jurado, Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Maria Arena, Member of the European Parliament
- Wilson Arias Castillo, Member of the Senate of Colombia
- Gabriela Barreiro, Member of the Parliament of Uruguay
- Petra Bayr, Member of the Austrian Parliament
- Gabriel Becerra Yañez, Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Benoit Biteau, Member of the European Parliament
- Malin Björk, Member of the European Parliament
- Frances Black, Member of the Oireachtas of Ireland
- Manuel Bompard, Member of the European Parliament
- Marc Johan Botenga, Member of the European Parliament
- Richard Boyd Barrett, Member of the Oireachtas of Ireland
- Milan Brglez, Member of the European Parliament
- Miguel Ángel Bustamante Martín , Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Andrés Cancimance López, Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Ricardo Canese, Member of the Mercosur Parliament
- Damien Carême, Member of the European Parliament
- Leïla Chaibi, Member of the European Parliament
- Antoni Comín i Oliveres, Member of the European Parliament
- David Cormand, Member of the European Parliament
- Clare Daly, Member of the European Parliament
- Maria Dantas, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Marisa De Simón, Member of the Parliamnet of Navarre
- Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, Member of the European Parliament
- Lorena Delgado Varas, Member of the Riksdag of Sweden
- Karima Delli, Member of the European Parliament
- Eduardo Eduardo Nelson Nicoletti, Member of the Mercosur Parliament
- Gloria Elizo Serrano, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Xavier Eritja Ciuró, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Nacho Escartín Lasierra, Member of the Congress of Aragon
- Oihana Etxebarrieta, Member of the Basque Parliament
- Lilian Galan, Member of the Parliament of Uruguay
- Raphaël Glucksmann, Member of the European Parliament
- Susana Gómez Castaño, Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Jessica González Herrera, Member of the Parliament of Catalonia
- Inés Granollers Cunillera, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Matthew Green, Member of the House of Commons of Canada
- Claude Gruffat, Member of the European Parliament
- Txema Guijarro García, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- José Gusmão, Member of the European Parliament
- Anja Hazekamp, Member of the European Parliament
- Pedro Antonio Honrubia Hurtado, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Yannick Jadot, Member of the European Parliament
- Pablo Jesús Jiménez Fernández , Member of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands
- Gino Kenny, Member of the Oireachtas of Ireland
- Petros Kokkalis, Member of the European Parliament
- Stelios Kouloglou, Member of the European Parliament
- Aurore Lalucq, Member of the European Parliament
- Pierre Larrouturou, Member of the European Parliament
- Juantxo López de Uralde , Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Chris MacManus, Member of the European Parliament
- Roser Maestro Moliner, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Enzo Malan, Member of the Parliament of Uruguay
- Íñigo Martínez Zatón, Member of the Basque Parliament
- Marisa Matias, Member of the European Parliament
- Cristina Mayor Abad, Member of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands
- Lisa Mazzone, Member of the Swiss Parliament
- Nora Mebarek, Member of the European Parliament
- Fernanda Melchionna e Silva, Member of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
- Silvia Modig, Member of the European Parliament
- Alfredo Mondragón Garzón , Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Agustín Moreno, Member of the Assembly of Madrid
- Luz Maria Munera Medina, Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Paul Murphy, Member of the Oireachtas of Ireland
- Anne-Sophie Pelletier, Member of the European Parliament
- Sirpa Pietikäinen, Member of the European Parliament
- Manu Pineda, Member of the European Parliament
- María Pita Cardenes, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Clara Ponsatí i Obiols, Member of the European Parliament
- Dominique Potier, Member of the French National Assembly
- Thomas Pringle, Member of the Oireachtas of Ireland
- Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó, Member of the European Parliament
- Evelyn Regner, Member of the European Parliament
- Sira Abed Rego, Member of the European Parliament
- Michèle Rivasi, Member of the European Parliament
- María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, Member of the European Parliament
- Caroline Roose, Member of the European Parliament
- Helder Salomão, Member otf the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
- Jordi Salvador i Duch, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Sol Sánchez, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Ismael Sánchez Castillo , Member of the Parliament of Andalusia
- Charles Santiago, Member of the Malaysian Parliament
- Enrique Santiago Romero, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Eduard Sarmiento Hidalgo, Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Mounir Satouri, Member of the European Parliament
- Carsten Schatz, Member of the Parliament of Berlin
- Martin Schirdewan, Member of the European Parliament
- Helmut Scholz, Member of the European Parliament
- Brid Smith, Member of the Oireachtas of Ireland
- Håkan Svenneling, Member of the Riksdag of Sweden
- Marc Tarabella, Member of the European Parliament
- José Alberto Tejada Echeverri , Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Sylvain Thevoz, Member of the Swiss Parliament
- Marie Toussaint, Member of the European Parliament
- Miguel Urbán Crespo, Member of the European Parliament
- Roberto Uriarte, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Alirio Uribe Muñoz , Member of the Congress of Colombia
- Ernest Urtasun, Member of the European Parliament
- Lammert van Raan, Member of the Dutch House of Representatives
- Aina Vidal Sáez, Member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies
- Idoia Villanueva Ruiz, Member of the European Parliament
- Nikolaj Villumsen, Member of the European Parliament
- Mick Wallace, Member of the European Parliament
- Lara Wolters, Member of the European Parliament
