Committee on Legal Affairs report with recommendations to the Commission on corporate due diligence and corporate accountability
MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION
with recommendations to the Commission on corporate due diligence and corporate accountability
The European Parliament,
Considers that voluntary due diligence standards have limitations and have not achieved significant progress in preventing human rights and environmental harm and in enabling access to justice; considers that the Union should urgently adopt binding requirements for undertakings to identify, assess, prevent, cease, mitigate, monitor, communicate, account for, address and remediate potential and/or actual adverse impacts on human rights, the environment and good governance in their value chain...
Considers that the scope of any future mandatory Union due diligence framework should be broad and cover all large undertakings [...], including those providing financial products and services, regardless of their sector of activity [...], as well as all publicly listed small and medium-sized undertakings and high-risk small and medium-sized undertakings...
Is convinced that compliance with the due diligence obligations should be a condition for access to the internal market...
[U]nderlines [...] that [...] relying on certified industry schemes does not exclude the possibility for an undertaking to be in breach of its due diligence obligations...
Stresses that due diligence obligations should be carefully designed to be an ongoing and dynamic process instead of a ‘box-ticking exercise’ ...
Highlights that effective due diligence requires that undertakings carry out in good faith effective, meaningful and informed discussions with relevant stakeholders...
Welcomes the announcement that the Commission proposal will include a liability regime and considers that in order to enable victims to obtain an effective remedy...
Considers that conducting due diligence should not automatically absolve undertakings from liability for the harm they have caused or have contributed to; further considers, however, that having a robust and effective due diligence process in place can help undertakings to avoid causing harm...
Requests that the Commission submit without undue delay a legislative proposal on mandatory supply chain due diligence, following the recommendations set out in the Annex hereto...