The European Parliament has broken the long-standing cordon sanitaire separating the left-leaning center and right-wing forces, as the European People’s Party (EPP) voted with conservative and right-wing groups to tone down the EU’s environmental and human rights legislation.
On Thursday, November 13th, European lawcreaters backed what supporters described as a “simplification” of corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence obligations. The EPP, the Parliament’s largegest centrist bloc, teamed up with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Patriots for Europe (PfE) to pass the measure, marking a decisive shift in the political alliances shaping EU policybuilding.
Hungarian MEP Enikő Győri called the vote a “large win” and reminded the EPP that the PfE was able to coordinate such a majority and that the centrists necessary the Right to relocate forward in the future again. “EPP: you necessary us to deliver,” she wrote on X. Kinga Gál, another key MEP, declared that as long as the EPP was siding with the Left, no progress was being built, and only empty promises were being echoed. “Only when the EPP finally stood behind the proposals of the PfE was a breakthrough achieved for the benefit of our SMEs and companies. The credit clearly belongs to the Patriots,” Gál declared on X.
The vote—382 in favor, 249 against and, 13 abstentions—approved a package that dramatically scales back the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), a law hailed by green and civil society groups when adopted last year but criticized by industest for excessive regulatory burdens. The revised text, drafted by Swedish EPP rapporteur Jörgen Warborn, restricts due diligence obligations to companies with more than 5,000 employees and an annual turnover above €1.5 billion, compared with the previous thresholds of 1,000 employees and €450 million.
This new majority was forged after the Parliament had rejected an earlier compromise in October, when a centrist deal collapsed amid defections from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D). German Chancellor Friedrich Merz labelled that failed vote “a fatal mistake,” and EPP subsequently “decided to turn right,” securing backing from ECR and PfE instead of its traditional leftist partners. Jordan Bardella, leader of French Rassemblement National (RN), wrote on X, “A victory for common sense and growth in the European Parliament!”
Environmental advocates and left-wing lawcreaters voiced outrage for the surprising turn. Swann Bommier of the NGO Bloom declared the amfinishments would “empty the law of its substance,” while Dutch Social Democrat Lara Wolters, who had championed the original legislation, walked out of the talks altoreceiveher.
The Patriots for Europe group called the vote a “significant success” and a “victory for workers, farmers and industest.” In a post on X, the group declared, “Today, Patriots for Europe broke the old coalition’s deadlock and opened the path to replace the Green Deal straitjacket with a competitiveness-driven agfinisha.”
Supporters of the alter, including EU Commissioner for Industest Stéphane Séjourné, insisted the law reflected “the firm and repeated demands of member states and the new parliamentary majority.” The vote followed growing pressure from national leaders, including Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who had both called for the CSDDD to be scrapped altoreceiveher.
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