Copublished with ActionAid France, Les Amis de la Terre France, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Oxfam France, Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa & the CGT
February 26, 2025 – The European Commission today presented a legislative proposal that brutally reverses crucial advances in the protection of human rights, the environment, and climate. Under the guise of ‘simplifying’ business operations, the Commission’s ‘Omnibus’ directive proposes to dismantle numerous obligations related to sustainability and human rights protection.
The European Commission’s Omnibus directive proposal is a ‘simplification’ in name only. In reality, it represents a massive and unprecedented deregulation, reminiscent of the ongoing deregulation policy in the United States. Presented hastily and without fully respecting democratic procedures, it targets public interest standards. These standards aim to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental violations caused by companies, while enabling economic and financial actors to align with European climate objectives.
Towards a notable weakening of the CSDDD…
Regarding the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the proposal drastically reduces its scope (excluding indirect business relationships, where many serious violations occur), strips certain corrective measures and expected corporate climate transition plans of their substance, and undermines mechanisms for monitoring, sanctioning, and holding companies civilly liable in case of misconduct.
Concretely, these changes would deprive the European duty of vigilance of any useful effect. The most serious violations would remain outside its scope, companies at fault could exonerate themselves through cosmetic, inadequate measures, and they could avoid the fundamental obligation to repair the damage caused by their activities. In reality, multinationals will be able to continue selling clothes made by workers in inhumane conditions, deforesting, and endangering biodiversity with impunity. By eliminating these key provisions, the European Commission is transforming the duty of vigilance into a statement of intent.
… and of the CSRD
Regarding the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the proposal reduces the number of companies covered by 80 to 85% and eliminates sector-specific standards, which allow prioritizing the most polluting sectors such as the extractive industry. This means that some essential information for directing financing towards a just climate transition will be lost.
Influence of lobbies and support from ultra-conservative movements
This legislative proposal is not only a disaster for the climate transition and the protection of human rights and the environment. Indeed, far-right policies and positions are advancing in Member States and within the European Parliament, where some MEPs openly welcome this deregulation initiative. This revision would also set a dangerous precedent, allowing for the dismantling of many other Green Deal protections in the future.
Moreover, this initiative is an additional sign of the democratic weakening taking place in the European Union. While many political and economic voices have spoken up to protect these texts, the Commission has chosen to capitulate to the lobbies of large corporations, such as MEDEF or FBF. The latter are taking advantage of a moment of political instability to unfold their deregulation agenda and prioritize their own interests and profits over the rights of millions of people and the future of our planet.
As crucial discussions loom within the Council of the European Union regarding this proposal, our French civil society organizations call on the French government not to betray the victims of corporate abuses worldwide and to defend the initial ambition of these texts. There is still time to avoid this historic setback.
