“Don’t give up!” This was the position of the Initiative pour un devoir de vigilance (IDV) while waiting for the content of its omnibus on CSRD, CSDDD and taxonomy. On 10 February the platform, made up of 15 civil society organisations, fundamental elements of the directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDDD), the directive on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD) and the regulation on taxonomy. The association also called for “particular ambition” on the part of the government, which had suspended the .
Massive deregulation designed to dismantle corporate responsibility
The IDV’s worst fears have now been realised. The Luxembourg platform speaks of “a frontal attack on corporate responsibility and sustainability.” “If adopted as it stands, the Omnibus proposal would deal a devastating blow to the EU’s commitments to climate neutrality under the Paris Agreement and to its commitment to defending human rights on the international stage,” explains its co-coordinator, Pascal Husting. “This is not simplification, it is massive deregulation designed to dismantle corporate responsibility and abandon the commitments of the Green Deal for Europe. This omnibus proposal is nothing more and nothing less than a capitulation to the short-termist ideology of employers’ associations, including Luxembourg’s Fedil.”
IDV appeals to the government
The IDV is critical of the wholesale attack on CSDDD, which has been “gutted” and deprived of the enforcement mechanisms that would have made it effective, namely “the fundamental requirement for all member states to guarantee civil liability in the event of failure to exercise due diligence” and “the right of victims to be represented by NGOs, trade unions or national human rights institutions when they do not have the means to access justice.” The Initiative pour un devoir de vigilance also criticises the fact that companies’ climate obligations are “reduced to greenwashing.”
Faced with a “commission clearly under the sway of business lobbies, which claims that the CSDDD harms the competitiveness and profitability of EU companies,” the IDV is calling on the Luxembourg government and Luxembourg MEPs to “firmly” reject this Omnibus proposal. “This proposal means that corporate profits take precedence over people’s lives and the future of our planet; it is a free pass for impunity. The commission is trampling on fundamental EU values, leaving victims powerless while irresponsible companies get away with it.”
This article was originally published in .