COMECE and CIDSE reiterate call for corporate accountability

By Lisa Zengarini

The European bishops, along with Catholic development agencies, are urging the governments of EU Member States to adopt a new landmark legislation which aims to hold large companies accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their value chains.

Initially presented by the European Commission in 2022, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) has been contested for some time as critics fear it adds to companies’ bureaucratic burden.

Stop corporate abuse and guarantee global solidarity

The Council of the EU is set to discuss a compromise agreement it reached in December 2023 with the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on Wednesday, 14 February, after EU ambassadors last week failed to give the green light to the deal, which still proved too controversial.

Ahead of the Council’s discussion, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and CIDSE (the Catholic network of development agencies in Europe, Australasia and North America) issued a joint statement  on Tuesday  asking governments to promptly adopt the compromise text  “in order to address the risks that corporate activities pose to our Human Family and our Common Home.”

“Now more than ever, we need mandatory supply chain due diligence to stop corporate abuse and guarantee global solidarity, ”  they said.

Human rights and the environment 

The statement begins by noting that the negative impacts of corporate activities on human rights and the environment “are not the hazardous and occasional externalities of business activities”, but often the consequences “of an economic system that puts profit over people and the extraction of wealth over care for the planet”, and that mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence have been advocated for by civil society and faith-based and religious organisations for several years

“It is now on the Council of the European Union to ensure that the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is adopted to guarantee access to justice for those affected by corporate abuses, the statement remarks echoing a statement released issued by the EU bishops in 2020.

Recalling that in September 2023 more than 200 faith leaders joined an appeal for corporate accountability, the statement concludes by noting that large, medium-sized and small companies also support the current compromise as “feasible and appropriate”.