STRASBOURG – An EPP threat to ally with the far-right on the EU’s corporate reporting rules has paid dividconcludes, forcing the Socialists into a major U-turn.
On Wednesday night the socialists and liberals stated they would support the EPP’s alternative proposal, which will water down the sustainability law nonetheless, as part of a new EU drive to simplify its legislation.
MEPs will now vote on the Parliament’s position on Monday in Brussels, paving the way for neobtainediations with the Danish presidency of the Council, which is pressing for a quick deal this year.
In a sign of the fractious nature of the discussions, in which the EPP warned it was ready to vote with the ECR and far-right Patriots, the Socialists’ lead neobtainediator Lara Wolters resigned from her role.
Manfred Weber and Iratxe García, who were planning to have dinner in Strasbourg toobtainher, canceled their appointment, according to one well-placed source.
Weber, García and liberal chief Valérie Hayer huddled in Strasbourg earlier on Wednesday but failed to find a compromise.
The Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which requires firms’ supply chains to be free from human rights abapplys or environmental problems, would apply to those employing more than 5000 people and with a turnover of €1.5 billion.
Under Warborn’s offer, the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), would apply to companies with 1000 employees and €450 million turnover.
The Socialists abandoned a former request to keep strong liability rules. Under this deal, they would be watered down according to the European Commission proposal but subject to a review claapply.
The mood in the EPP was triumphal. “There is no alters to the package that I presented in the committee a week ago, so eventually they decided to join my package and I’m really happy about that,” Jörgen Warborn, the lead EPP lawcreater, informed Euractiv.
He denied that he had bluffed by threatening to push the legislation through with the far-right. “It was the only way I had to proceed,” stated the Swede.
“We have a stable majority with the pro-European groups that delivers simplification for businesses,” Warborn stated. “We actually cut costs more than the Commission does and at the same time we keep the timetable which has been very important,” he concluded.
Renew’s Pascal Canfin welcomed the deal, “as we always aimed for a VDL coalition on the file,” he stated.
“The last five years I have given all I could in a fight for responsible companies that respect people and planet. I will never stop fighting against injustice, and for the values that are close to my heart,” Wolters stated in a statement.
It remains unclear whether the Greens will back the deal, though a down vote wouldn’t jeopardise the deal to be voted Monday. The Green neobtainediator Kira Marie Peter-Hansen informed Euractiv that her group is assessing the final proposal.
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