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First green light to new bill on firms’ impact on human rights and environment | News
MEPs on the Legal Affairs Committee adopted with 20 votes for, 4 against and no abstentions new, so-called “due diligence” rules, obliging firms to alleviate the adverse impact their activities have on human rights and the environment, including slavery, child labour, labour exploitation, biodiversity loss, pollution and destruction of natural heritage. The requirement to prevent, end or mitigate their negative effects also concerns companies’ upstream partners working in design, manufacture, transport and supply, and downstream partners, including those dealing with distribution, transport and storage.
Scope and transition plan
The rules will apply to EU and non-EU companies and parent companies with over 1000 employees and with a turnover of more than 450 million euro and to franchises with a turnover of more than 80 million euro if at least 22.5 million was generated by royalties.
Companies will also have to integrate due diligence into their policies and risk management systems, and adopt and put into effect a transition plan making their business model compatible with the global warming limit of 1.5°C under the Paris Agreement. The transition plan should include the company’s time-bound climate change targets, key actions on how to reach them and an explanation, including figures, of what investments are necessary to implement the plan.
Civil liability and fines
Firms will be liable if they do not comply with their due diligence obligations and will have to fully compensate their victims. They will also have to adopt complaints mechanisms and engage with individuals and communities adversely affected by their actions.
Member states will designate a supervisory authority in charge of monitoring, investigating and imposing penalties on companies that do not comply. These can include fines of up to 5% of companies’ net worldwide turnover. Foreign companies will be required to designate their authorised representative based in the member state in which they operate, who will communicate with supervisory authorities about due diligence compliance on their behalf. The Commission will establish the European Network of Supervisory Authorities to support cooperation among supervisory bodies.
Quote
Following the committee vote, lead MEP Lara Wolters (S&D, NL) said:“I’m delighted that a clear majority of Legal Affairs Committee members backed the Due Diligence Directive today. It is high time that this legislation is adopted, to stop corporate abuse and to give companies clarity in what is expected of them. I’m looking forward to the plenary vote and confident that it will be adopted swiftly.”
Next steps
Once formally approved by the European Parliament and the member states, the directive will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the EU Official Journal.
Background
The Commission proposal introduced on 23 February 2022 is consistent with the European Parliament’s 2021 call for mandatory due diligence legislation. It complements other existing and upcoming legislative acts in the area, such as the deforestation regulation, conflict minerals regulation and the draft regulation prohibiting products made with forced labour.
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The European Commission has announced the results of the 2024 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks call.
The Commission will fund a total of 149 excellent doctoral programmes with €608.6 million to train over 1800 doctoral candidates in and outside academia.
€536.9 million will be awarded to 133 standard Doctoral programmes, to train PhD candidates and develop their skills.
Funding includes also €26 million for 8 Industrial Doctoral programmes to train PhD candidates and develop their skills outside academia, including in industry and business. Doctoral candidates will also benefit from joint industry-academia supervision.
An additional €33 million will be allocated to 8 Joint Doctoral programmes, which promote joint selection, training and supervision leading to joint or multiple doctoral degrees.
The European Research Executive Agency (REA) received 1,417 applications for this call. This means a success rate of 10.6 %.
Close collaboration beyond academia
These doctoral programmes are implemented by international partnerships, involving 9335 organisations in 130 countries in the EU, Horizon Europe associated countries and beyond. 4725 of these are private for-profit entities.
Selected projects are coordinated by organisations in 18 countries.
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© FRVS+MPCP 2022. The European Times® News is registered as an EU Trademark. All rights reserved. The European Times® and the logo of The European Times® are EU trademarks registered by FRVS+MPCP.
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DISCLAIMER OPINIONS: The opinions of the authors or reproduced in the articles are the ones of those stating them and it is their own responsibility. Should you find any incorrections you can always contact the newsdesk to seek a correction or right of replay.
DISCLAIMER TRANSLATIONS: All articles in this site are published in English. The translated versions are done through an automated process known as neural translations. If in doubt, always refer to the original article. Thank you for understanding.
DISCLAIMER PHOTOS: We mostly used photos images that are readily available online, from free sources, or from the people promoting the news. If by any chance it happens that we have used one of your copyrighted photos, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will take it down without question. We do not make profits as this is a not for profit project to give voice to the voiceless while giving them a platform to be informed also of general news, and it is completely free.
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