The lawmaking process surrounding the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) has been a rollercoaster. In December, the EU reached a provisional agreement, which normally signals that the passage of a law is imminent. However, when it came time to vote on the CS3D, there was a dramatic shift in support in the eleventh hour. After fraught negotiations, the law appeared to be on death’s door. Last Friday, a compromise clutched the legislation from the jaws of defeat and the CS3D is back on track to be passed in April. Responsible Investor reports on the watered-down version of the law stating:
“The last-minute changes have ‘substantially reduced the scope of what the CSDDD could have achieved’, said Isabella Ritter, EU Policy Officer at ShareAction, while still praising today’s outcome as a watershed moment for corporate accountability. ‘By phasing in the limited measures agreed upon today, we are unlikely to see tangible results for almost a decade, leaving vulnerable workers at risk and jeopardising our planet and its vital ecosystem.’”
The law isn’t completely out of the woods – the law must survive a vote in Parliament’s legal affairs committee next week with final passage expected in April. Normally, after so much negotiation the rest of the process could be considered a formality, but if the CS3D’s journey has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is a done deal until its has officially passed.
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