Status: 02.08.2023.

This Policy Briefing Paper deals with human rights and environmental due diligence obligations of financial companies. It reviews the requirements already established for this purpose by the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct (OECD Guidelines) and contained in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Correspondingly, the strengths and weaknesses of the proposals for the text of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) of the EU Commission (Commission), the EU Council (Council) and the EU Parliament (Parliament) are assessed comparatively. In order to ensure that the final text of the forthcoming CSDDD will be as closely aligned with the standards of the UNGPs and OECD Guidelines as possible, this policy paper specifically highlights the proposed provisions and paragraphs that decision makers should advocate to retain in the trilogue negotiations.

Since 8 June 2023, the EU Commission, the EU Council and the EU Parliament have been negotiating their positions in a trilogue towards reconciling a final text.

We call on the negotiating stakeholders to retain the proposals on the financial sector that are the most closely aligned with global standards. They include the following:

1. Mandatory inclusion of the financial sector
2. Due diligence obligations for investors
3. Harmonization of the scope criteria with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
4. Inclusion of pension institutions that are considered social security schemes
5. Ongoing risk assessment
6. Due diligence obligations for the entire value chain

You can find the entire policy briefing paper here or the German version here