EU Commission President Receives Award for Green Deal Laws She is Undoing
In June 2024, the EU adopted a groundbreaking law requiring large companies to respect human rights and the environment throughout their global value chains. It also introduced new plans to limit CO2 emissions. The law, known as the Corpora
In June 2024, the EU adopted a groundbreaking law requiring large companies to respect human rights and the environment throughout their global value chains. It also introduced new plans to limit CO2 emissions.
The law, known as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), signaled a major shift for companies from voluntary standards to being held legally accountable.
The law was part of the European Green Deal, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s flagship project to make the EU more sustainable and climate neutral by 2050. A year later, von der Leyen has made a U-turn. Under the guise of “simplification” she’s advanced a sweeping Omnibus proposal that would strip the CSDDD of its most important elements. This proposal contradicts her earlier promise to “maintain the content” of this law. It would eliminate company liability for harm, scrap the requirement for due diligence across the whole supply chain, and weaken implementation of companies’ climate mitigation plans. Industry lobby groups – who have characterized the EU’s sustainability policies as red tape gone wild – appear to have played a major role in pushing for these changes. Yet on May 29, the German city of Aachen plans to honor von der Leyen with the prestigious Karlspreis award, partly for the “impetus she has given to the Green Deal”. The timing could not be more ironic: she’s now dismantling one of the Green Deal’s most meaningful achievements. This rollback couldn’t come at a worse time. Serious human rights abuses – such as life-threatening working conditions, child labor, and toxic pollution – are all too common in global supply chains. That’s why community leaders, human rights groups, trade unions, and businesses spent years advocating in favor of the EU supply chains law. To live up to the award and the vision of leadership it celebrates, von der Leyen must change course. A German civil society coalition will be in Aachen protesting and calling for just that. Upholding the original EU supply chain law would show von der Leyen hasn’t forgotten the values and goals that brought it to life, and that she’s still committed to leading Europe toward a greener, fairer future.
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References:
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1760/oj
- https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/1d14a487-f042-476f-997f-adf7c3e14950_en?filename=CSDDD%20Omnibus%20proposal.pdf
- https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-263718
- https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2025/03/06/eu-omnibus-a-playground-for-industry-lobbies/
- https://www.karlspreis.de/en/start
- https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/17/decade-after-rana-plaza-safety-flaws-persist
- https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/video/2015/09/29/philippines-children-risk-death-gold
- https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/26/ethiopia-companies-long-ignored-gold-mine-pollution
- https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/big-issues/mandatory-due-diligence/companies-investors-in-support-of-mhrdd/