Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937
EU companies operate in complex surroundings and, especially large ones, rely on global value chains. To be in line with the European Green Deal and in delivering on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, these companies must succeed in transition to a climate-neutral and green economy.
Unfortunately, current voluntary measures do not seem to have fully led to improvements, which is why certain EU companies are associated with negative impacts on human rights and the environment.
Against this background, the proposal under consideration aims to provide a framework to improve impacts of companies (>500 employees and net wordwide turnover >EUR 150 million or sector of relevance) in their value chains.
“Member States shall ensure that companies conduct human rights and environmental due diligence (…) by carrying out the following actions:
(a)integrating due diligence into their policies (…);
(b)identifying actual or potential adverse impacts (…);
(c)preventing and mitigating potential adverse impacts, and bringing actual adverse impacts to an end and minimising their extent (…);
(d)establishing and maintaining a complaints procedure (…);
(e)monitoring the effectiveness of their due diligence policy and measures (…);
(f)publicly communicating on due diligence (…).
Member States shall ensure that, for the purposes of due diligence, companies are entitled to share resources and information within their respective groups of companies and with other legal entities in compliance with applicable competition law (more information here)”
Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area:
- Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD )
- Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
- Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims
- Conflict Minerals Regulation
- -etc.
Support from DFGE
For more than two decades, DFGE has been dealing with Corporate Social Responsibility under the umbrella term Sustainability Intelligence. Especially with sustainability reporting according to the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative we can support companies about the Due Diligence Act. In addition to general information on company strategy and corporate governance, we provide more specific sub-issues of sustainability such as CO2 emissions, child labor or sustainability in the supply chain, etc. If you have any further questions, please contact us at or by phone at +49 8192-99733-20.
