The collapse of the EU's corporate responsibility directive on Friday seems likely. Finland withdraws its support from the directive.
Brussels
Finland is ready to overturn the EU directive strengthening the responsibility of large companies' supply chains at Friday's crucial meeting. According to the view of the governing parties, the class action right of environmental organizations and trade unions included in the directive is sufficient reason to overturn the directive, which on the other hand contains a lot of good things, and which the business sector has also hoped for.
On Thursday, the large committee blessed the government's earlier position with the votes of the governing parties and the centre. The SDP, the Greens and the Left Alliance left a dissenting opinion on the decision.
The large committee accepted the government's policy that Finland can abstain from voting in favor of the directive as part of a larger group in Friday's vote. According to the rules of the Council of EU countries, abstaining from voting is counted as a non-vote.
Committee however, he emphasizes that if a majority to approve the directive is not found on Friday, “agreement on the issue and solutions to Finland's concerns would still be sought before the European Parliament elections”. Chairman of the committee Heikki Autto (kok) says that, in practice, this means that the ambassador representing Finland at the meeting would announce the wish to continue the negotiations after the vote.
“It may also be that if a qualified majority is not found, then [kokousta johtava] the presidency does not necessarily take the matter to a vote, but informs the parliament, in which case the question is whether we will try to return to the negotiating table,” says Autto.
However, he admits that the chances of saving the directive are small. Negotiations on the directive have taken place for two years, and now a new agreement on its content should be found quickly. In order for the European Parliament to have time to approve the directive in the last plenary session of this election period in April, a negotiated agreement should be reached in about a week.
Vice-Chairman of the Grand Committee Maria Guzenina (sd) says that emphasizing further negotiations in Finland's position is not realism.
“In practice, the governing parties bought themselves a better conscience,” he says.
Sdp, the Left Alliance and the Greens believe that Finland should support the directive.
Directive a crash now seems likely.
Germany has already announced that it will abstain from the vote, as the Liberal Party, which is part of the governing coalition, opposes the directive. Autto says that there have also been signs from Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania that they might abstain. If Italy, which is considering its position, also turns against the directive, there will be a sufficient minority to block the directive.
The government opposes the directive especially because it would give trade unions and environmental organizations the right to bring class actions against companies that violate responsibility obligations. According to the government, this would be a bad fit for the Finnish system, where class actions can only be used in consumer cases.
“These elements were introduced into the proposal in the final stages of the negotiations without the content of the provisions being properly discussed on the EU Council's side,” the large committee states.
According to Guzenina, the reasons given by the government seem like excuses.
“I think this is about an image that has become too big. The labor market situation in Finland is inflamed, and the government fears that this will open doors that it does not want in principle.”
#government #plans #overturn #corporate #responsibility #directive #criticism
