Sustainable corporate governance

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the proposal as an important step in setting up a coherent legislative EU framework on sustainable corporate governance and due diligence which promotes the respect of human rights as a duty for businesses and directors and which strives for a level playing field within the EU;
• underlines the great importance of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and calls for policy coherence between national policies and European legislation that covers similar areas or also include due diligence rules;
• points out that, policymakers need to keep the challenging MSMEs' position in mind and ensure that support tools are ready at the European and national levels once the due diligence legislation enters into force;
• emphasises that exercising corporate due diligence, is an ongoing process, in which the involvement of trade unions and workers' representatives is a success factor;
• is concerned that the Commission proposal contains numerous unclear legal concepts that are open to interpretation, and thus considers it necessary to better define these terms;
• calls for recognition that due diligence requires a risk-based approach and can involve prioritisation based on the risk-assessment.

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat.