Copublished with Forum Citoyen pour la Justice Economique, Les Amis de la Terre France, Oxfam France, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Notre Affaire à Tous, Bloom, Amnesty International, IFDH, Sherpa, LDH, Collectif Ethique sur l’Etiquette
Paris, June 4th 2025 – More than 80% of French citizens think multinational companies should be required to prevent damaging social, environmental, and climate impacts, including those of their subcontractors. This is the finding of a new OpinionWay survey conducted for Reclaim Finance and the Citizens’ Forum for Economic Justice released today. (1) The survey comes shortly after Emmanuel Macron proposed scrapping the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) – a key piece of legislation regulating multinationals. Civil society organisations are calling on the French government to listen to public opinion and support both the CSDDD and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which are currently under review as part of the European Union’s Omnibus proposal.
According to the OpinionWay survey for Reclaim Finance and the FCJE: (2)
- 8 out of 10 French citizens (81%) think multinational corporations should be held accountable for their social, environmental, and climate impacts, and for those of their partners and subcontractors.
- 86% believe that companies should be regulated to make them more transparent and to ensure they prevent such impacts, even if it entails additional costs for their business.
- 90% want multinationals to actively contribute to the fight against climate change and be required to adopt and implement transition plans aligned with the goal of limiting global warming to +1.5°C. (3)
These findings confirm that the French public strongly supports ambitious regulation to ensure corporate transparency and accountability in terms of human rights, environmental protection, and climate action. Yet these regulations are currently at risk from the French president,(4) who has proposed scrapping the European due diligence directive, and from the government, which supports the European Commission’s proposed “Omnibus” directive.
Commenting on the opinion poll results, Olivier Guérin, advocacy officer at Reclaim Finance says:
“European politicians need to wake up and smell the coffee – these results show clear public support for strong regulation to hold multinational companies responsible for damaging the climate or breaching human rights. French MEPs who are currently pushing for even more deregulation through Omnibus – including those in the EPP, ECR and Patriots groups – were elected by citizens that blatantly disagree with them. They should listen to their electorate and stop trying to undo this critical regulation. ”
The Omnibus proposal seeks to roll back both the CSRD and CSDDD, notably reducing by 80% the number of companies required to disclose social and environmental information and undermining the implementation of climate transition plans.(5) The Council of the European Union is expected to take a position on the proposal before the end of June.
Reclaim Finance and the Citizens’ Forum for Economic Justice member organizations are calling on the French government to heed the concerns of the French public—concerns also shared by many companies, economists, and financial actors – (6) and to stop its attack on these key texts for the climate, the environment, and human rights.
