Paris, January 24, 2025 - According to a document made public by Politico and Mediapart, the French government, via the Minister of Economy Eric Lombard, intends to bring to Brussels an agenda of all-out deregulation which, in addition to suspending the application of the text “sine die”, would call into question entire sections of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. This irresponsible position risks precipitating the unraveling of a text necessary in the face of the climate and social crisis, a text that France nevertheless declares to have supported.

Called upon to comment on the European regulatory simplification agenda, the French government intends to use this opportunity to attack not only the European directive on due diligence adopted last year, but also numerous provisions of the text on non-financial reporting, despite it already being in force. The instrumentalization of the simplification law to weaken a directive is dangerous and unacceptable for European democracy.

According to the document published this morning in the press, France would request an indefinite postponement of the application of this directive, a significant increase in the application thresholds, or even the removal of the clause that would allow in the future to specifically regulate the activities of financial actors. These numerous modifications would lead to an exclusion of nearly 70% of the companies concerned, even though only 3,400 of the 32 million European companies (i.e. less than 0.1%) were covered under the previous thresholds according to the NGO SOMO. (1)

Actually, as during the negotiation of the text, France is merely echoing the demands made by several employers’ organizations hostile to the duty of vigilance, including AFEP and Business Europe. In doing so, France is actively contributing to undoing the progress achieved by citizens in recent years.

For our organisations, human rights and environmental associations and trade unions, the position expressed by France is irresponsible and incomprehensible. Last week, more than 160 European associations and trade unions repeated their opposition to a questioning of European Sustainable Finance legislations.

We call on the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and the Bayrou Government to reconsider this position as soon as possible and to reiterate France’s support for the European duty of vigilance, for the other texts of the Green Deal which are vital for people, the climate and biodiversity, and for respecting their implementation timetables.

With this position, the French government is anchoring a real step backwards on its climate ambitions and on a text that was a step forward for social and climate justice. Between financing the most harmful activities and the climate, the French government has definitely chosen the wrong path. This French position is simply incompatible with the European climate objectives for 2040. This is all the more problematic since the European Union, even with the implementation of the European Green Deal, is not on the right track to achieve these same objectives, according to the European Environment Agency. The French government must urgently reverse its position and support European texts in favor of the environment, climate and human rights instead of opposing them. Olivier Guérin, EU Advocacy Officer at Reclaim Finance

This press release first appeared here.

Notes:

1. CSDDD Datahub reveals law covers fewer than 3,400 EU-based corporate groups – SOMO