The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive #CSDDD has finally passed. The Playing Field for business is now levelling. Those Companies who have not yet been learning from those who already demonstrated what can be done for Workforces and the Environment in their global supply chains need to start learning how now. We look forward to train, guide and help many more towards positive Social and Environmental Impacts from this improved human rights due diligence needed, and resilient, innovative, risk-reduced businesses and economies.
⚡ European Parliament plenary just now formally adopted the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive #CSDDD, 374 on 628 in favor. 🤟 It was exciting to follow the final vote live in Strasbourg at European Parliament, with friends & colleagues. ❗Today was the final vote by European Parliament before the completion of the file's adoption. Further delays due to so-called corrigendum procedure, have been averted. ⏭ EU Council will now seal the adoption of the law - in COREPER (ambassadors) on May 15th and with COMPET Council (ministers) vote on May 23rd. EU member states approved CSDDD text on March 15th. ⭐ #CSDDD will then be published in the EU Journal & enter into force 20 days later (around start of summer), but it'll only enter into application gradually as of 3 years later (mid 2027). 💡 In recent weeks, RBA organized several high-level discussions with government and industry leaders to discuss the implications of this groundbreaking new law. Some takeaways: 👉 there seems to be consensus that CSDDD remains a game-changer for our space (despite its imperfections & despite recent concessions) and that it holds the potential to fix many of the imperfections of existing due diligence laws and existing due diligence practice. 👉we need to manage expectations: CSDDD can fix how companies behave with regards to risks, but it obviously won't fix the world's problems. And, companies can't deliver CSDDD overnight - companies deserve time and patience to gradually get this right. 👉Implementing CSDDD is a huge challenge for companies, but we know the recipe and have most of the tools to get there. That said - tools and approaches will need to improve & their deployment brought to (way) greater scale. 👉the EU is ambitious in what it asks from companies, but will need to match that ambition: the role of (EU) governments in getting this right, is huge: from delivering accompanying measures (the relatively easy part), to finally offering effective solutions for policy coherence (the more difficult part), to using its own leverage to address systemic situations that companies alone don't have the needed leverage (the difficult part). 👉 one of several things the EU need to get right in the next phase is not only harmonised transposition but especially also engagement with non-EU countries, on the impacs of this law, both from a policy and industry point of view. RBA has been engaging governments and industries worldwide since late 2022, to educate and prepare for the implications of CSDDD. Congratulations to “Ms. CSDDD” Lara Wolters and team (especially Matthew Hogarth) for delivering what many thought was impossible; to Heidi Hautala (and team - especially Milla Ojalehto and @Herlinde Vanhooydonck) for paving the way - championing the topic - building bridges across silos; and to Axel Voss and the incredible Greta Koch, both of who deserve so much credit for making business sense out of a complex file under complicated circumstances.