EU: Rhetoric on "bureaucracy" in backlash against supply chain regulation uses a distorted image of these laws - op-ed
Tom Fisk
"Im Sog der Bürokratierhetorik - Lieferketten- und Nachhaltigkeitsregulierung zwischen Bürokratie und Good Private Governance"
[Unofficial translation provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]
Supply chain and sustainability regulation are well on the way to becoming key election issues. As one of the first legislative initiatives following the break-up of the traffic light coalition, the FDP introduced a bill to repeal the Supply Chain Duty of Care Act (LkSG), denouncing “expensive supply chain bureaucracy” … It is an example of how 'bureaucracy' is becoming a key political term behind the backlash against the Green Deal.
…at European level, the call for “better regulation” serves as a supposedly neutral cipher for deregulation….
…the EPP Group achieved a majority in favor of postponing the entry into force of the already adopted regulation by one year and simplifying the due diligence process. It is quite possible that this will not remain an isolated case...
...the vagueness of the term makes it easy to dismiss individual regulations of the modern legal and administrative system as “bureaucratic”, thereby ignoring the functions and achievements of the regulatory patterns labeled as “bureaucratic”… This not only means defining the characteristics of “bureaucratic” regulation more clearly, but also asking in particular why and under what conditions bureaucratic rhetoric is effective…
…the “due diligence” procedure is based on management processes that companies are already familiar with and use in the area of quality control and environmental audits … The procedural approach allows human rights and environmental risks to be assessed in a contextualized manner. Behind what is criticized as a “bureaucratic” approach, there is therefore far-reaching trust in companies…
This demonstrates the basic idea of “reflexive” regulation that is characteristic of the UNGP .... Companies are not only addressees, but to a large extent also interpreters of supply chain laws...
...The criticism of the LkSG as “bureaucratic” therefore uses a distorted image of the law and ultimately misses the point…
The effectiveness of due diligence is determined by the details and the resources that are invested in it. This is where the political danger of bureaucratic rhetoric lies: a radical simplification of the due diligence process…does not make supply chain laws “more efficient”, but quickly worthless…
…at EU level, the bureaucratic rhetoric is chipping away at already adopted Green Deal legislation...