By AFP - Agence France Presse
France asks EU to postpone trade rules on rights and environment
Umberto BACCHI
On Friday, France asked the European Union to suspend “indefinitely” new rules on environmental and human rights standards in the supply chain, claiming that they are too onerous for companies.
The request came as Brussels promised to make life easier for companies complaining of over-regulation, as the 27-nation bloc strives to renew its economic competitiveness.
“Our companies need simplification, not additional administrative burdens,” French European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad said on X when announcing Paris' request.
He also called for a review of a second set of corporate sustainability reporting rules that have come under attack from European business lobby groups.
Brussels is concerned that the EU is failing to keep pace with the United States and faces growing competition from China amid a range of challenges, including low productivity, slow growth, high energy costs, and weak investment.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told this week's meeting of world elites in Davos that Brussels “must make business much easier across Europe”.
“Many companies are holding back investment in Europe because of unnecessary bureaucracy,” she said, adding that the European Commission would launch a ‘far-reaching simplification’ - citing the due diligence rules that France is now calling for to be suspended.
Under what is known as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), large companies are obliged to identify and address the “adverse human rights and environmental impacts” of their supply chains worldwide.
A group of nine environmental and aid groups, including Oxfam France and Bloom, denounced Paris' “irresponsible” call for a delay, which risks “precipitating the dismantling” of legislation needed to tackle climate and social problems.
“This French position is simply incompatible with European climate objectives,” said the NGOs.
Passed last March, the CSDDD is part of a series of mammoth laws passed by the bloc in recent years to combat climate change and improve business practices, which are now facing fresh scrutiny.
France already has its due diligence law which obliges large companies to explain the measures taken to identify and prevent rights and environmental violations linked to their activities.
- 'Hell for companies'
Haddad also called for a revision of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires large companies to provide investors and other “interested parties” with information about their climate impacts and emissions, and the actions being taken to reduce them.
The French government this week described the CSRD rules as “hell for companies”, joining a growing chorus of criticism from executives and others who argue that the requirements are too onerous.
Large companies must implement the CSRD for the first time in their annual results for 2024.
This week, a German big business lobby group said that European companies oppose both sets of EU rules, arguing that they “should not be exposed to disproportionate standards” compared to foreign rivals, calling for deregulation.
This was echoed by BusinessEurope, the EU's main business lobby, which on Wednesday said companies urgently needed “a bold signal” that the EU was serious about reducing regulatory burdens.
But the Paris move drew strong criticism from EU lawmakers from the left and center.
“This means destroying the only two European laws that aim to set rules on globalization,” accused Manon Aubry, who led the work on the due diligence law for The Left.
Similarly, Pascal Canfin, a French member of the centrist Renew, said that his group was in favor of “simplifying” the texts, but not postponing them.
cjc-ub/ec/jm
Comments