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Containers in the port of Hamburg

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A sufficient majority of EU states support a weaker European supply chain law.

The permanent representatives of the member states adopted the directive on Friday in Brussels with a qualified majority, as the Belgian Presidency announced on the online service X (formerly Twitter).

This meant that Germany, which abstained from the committee, was outvoted.

An abstention acts as a no vote.

The EU Parliament still has to approve the project.

A majority is considered likely here.

In the federal government, the FDP urged that Germany not agree.

The Liberals fear, for example, that companies will withdraw from Europe for fear of bureaucracy and legal risks.

Politicians from the SPD and the Greens, however, support the project.

The disagreements led to an open exchange of blows in the traffic light coalition.

Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states had already agreed on a supply chain law in December.

The aim is to hold large companies accountable if they profit from child or forced labor outside the EU.

Larger companies must also create a plan to ensure their business model and strategy are compatible with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The December agreement initially did not find a sufficient majority among the EU states.

At the end of February an attempt to pass it failed.

The project was then significantly weakened.

Instead of as originally planned, it will no longer apply to companies with more than 500 employees and at least 150 million euros in sales.

According to the information, the limit was raised to 1,000 employees and 450 million euros - after a transition period of five years.

This scope should be approached gradually.

After a transition period of three years, the requirements will initially apply to companies with more than 5,000 employees and more than 1.5 billion euros in sales worldwide. After four years, the limit will drop to 4,000 employees and 900 million in sales.

The EU Commission should publish a list of affected non-EU companies.

The requirements could apply to them if their business generates a certain turnover in the EU.

In addition, so-called risk sectors were deleted, i.e. economic sectors in which the risk of human rights violations is considered higher, such as in agriculture or the textile industry.

Companies with fewer employees could also have been affected.

However, it is still planned that companies can be held accountable in European courts if they profit from human rights violations.

Ambiguous reactions from the SPD and FDP

Germany already has a supply chain law.

Despite the weakening, the EU version goes beyond its requirements.

German law precludes companies from being liable for breaches of their duty of care.

The political reaction after the decision was divided.

Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) was satisfied.

"This is good for human rights and the German economy, because it means we create fair competitive conditions for all companies in Europe."

The FDP reiterated its fundamental criticism of the EU Supply Chain Directive, which is supported by a majority of EU states.

“We would have liked a supply chain guideline that was less bureaucratic and practical,” said FDP leader and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Friday in Berlin.

He criticized EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU).

»We weren't able to prevail here, but the resistance wasn't in vain.

Ms. von der Leyen had to significantly downsize her plans.

Nevertheless, it would have been better to dispense with this directive completely in this form," said Lindner.

The FDP European MP Svenja Hahn said that the supply chain law remains impractical "because fundamental problems, such as unclear liability rules, remain outside of one's own sphere of influence."

The FDP will apparently also use the current decision in the upcoming European election campaign.

The head of the EU Commission had already been approached at the beginning of the week during the presentation of the FDP election posters with the portrait of the top candidate Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.

Von der Leyen "did not make any significant progress with the EU" during her term in office, but continued to increase "the bureaucratic burden on small and medium-sized companies and industry," said Lindner last Monday.

Now the FDP parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Christian Dürr, also followed up on Friday.

After the European elections, a new debate about the supply chain directive will be initiated.

"The fact that there was not a sufficient majority in Brussels against Ursula von der Leyen's bureaucratic madness means one thing above all to us: we will remain steadfast in the fight for economic success," said Dürr on Friday.

Von der Leyen's record is disastrous.

Dürr: “The European elections will therefore also be a vote on the economic policy of the CDU and CSU, which in reality have no interest in strengthening our competitiveness.

It's not just Berlin that needs the economic turnaround - Brussels too."

ulz/til/sev/dpa