On 19 January 2023, Ceemet joined the European business community to call for a realistic, proportionate, and workable EU due diligence framework. For effective implementation, it is crucial to impose full harmonisation in the EU and by all means avoid fragmentation of the EU single market.
In order to achieve the aim of the Directive, while making it workable in practice for companies, Ceemet, together with 26 business associations, urge the European Parliament and the Council to take the following businesses recommendations:
- Companies should be able to prioritise the most salient risks and have the freedom to take appropriate actions to cease, prevent or mitigate identified adverse impacts in accordance with a risk-based approach.
- Carrying out due diligence for the whole value chain is neither manageable nor realistic.
- Regulating directors’ duties is unnecessary to reach the objectives of the proposal and does not belong in a due diligence framework.
- The list of norms/conventions in the Annex is too far reaching and generates legal uncertainty.
- The legal liability provisions need to be balanced and truly incorporate the widely accepted principle that due diligence is an obligation of means and that companies cannot be made liable for damages they have not caused or directly contributed to.
- A clear guidance, also specific guidance to some sectors, needs to be adopted and made available before rules enter into effect to help companies comply with the legislation.
- The legislation should acknowledge the possibility of organising due diligence at group level, including groups of companies that do not have a classic corporate structure consisting of parent companies and subsidiaries.