For over three years, European institutions have worked hard to develop and negotiate a groundbreaking EU supply chain law, with the aim of preventing and addressing human rights and environmental harm throughout companies’ supply chains. In mid-December, many celebrated the hard-reached agreement between the EU Council and Parliament on a draft law, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
But now, just before getting the law across the finish line, it risks being tripped up by a German government coalition partner, the FDP (Freie Demokratische Partei, or Free Democratic Party).
[Edit typo.]
It is also absurd, that this is against the interest of the economy and over the past two years the FDP government has taken more and more of a position hostile to the economy as a whole.
We need “reshoring” of industries. In the past the EU managed to leverage its market powers to create standards, that were adopted globally as a result. Both things are giving companies a global advantage as early adopters and by allowing to get parts of the supply chain back into Europe, that before they had offshored because of a pure cost competition.
The whole thing will help the European economy in the long run. Also we now see with the German car industry and fossil fuel dependance what happens if regulatory frameworks are not improved and companies are not demanded to improve. They’ll get chewn out by global competition.
On the national level they are currently also harming the economy in Germany by upholding austerity measures instead of investing into the countries infrastructure. But fucking over the poor people, and helping the fascists to rise into power on this way is more appealing than helping the economy and technological development.
The Economy™ the FDP is helping are a bunch of dodgy finance jugglers and tax dodgers who don’t give a flying shit about long term prospects, as long as the figures for the next quarter make the line go up. Short term profits on The financial markets™ is all that counts for neoliberal scum like the FDP.
Damn, this is starting to sound a lot like the Tories
Economically, they are quite similar. But the FDP largely lacks the moral bigotry typically found in conservatives.