EU policies on sustainable corporate governance
Sustainable Corporate Governance
BACKGROUND
The behaviour of companies will have a substantial impact on our ability to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Extreme poverty and human rights violations still prevail in many global supply chains and to disrupt this trend, it is essential that companies are held accountable for their conduct. Voluntary approaches, by demonstrating best practices and encouraging companies to improve their own practices, have led to some progress. However, to achieve large scale transformational change towards fair and sustainable supply chains, voluntary approaches must be complemented by mandatory legislation.
While some legislative measures are being adopted at national level, such as the UK Modern Slavery Act and the French Due Diligence Law, a harmonised approach to mandatory regulation at EU level is required.
In 2020, the European Commission launched a Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative, aiming at improving the EU regulatory framework on company law and corporate governance. The objective is to enable companies to focus on long-term sustainable value creation rather than short-term benefits, to better align the interests of companies, their shareholders, managers, stakeholders, and society, as well as to help companies to better manage sustainability-related matters in their own operations and value chains. The initiative covers 2 main parts: the directors’ duty of care and companies’ due diligence duty, as well as other measures, such as executive remuneration, corporate strategy, composition of boards and inclusion of stakeholders.
WHAT ARE THE FTAO’S VIEWS?
The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) welcomes European Commission’s commitment to introducing a proposal for Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative which includes Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD).
We support the broad civil society call for an effective and impactful legislation, as articulated in the civil society letter to Commissioner Reynders on the announcement of EU Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative, which we co-signed.
Given that defending the interests of small farmers and workers in the Global South is at the core of our mission, we, together with Brot für die Welt, commissioned the University of Greenwich (UK) to look at how to ensure human rights due diligence frameworks have a positive impact on small farmers and workers. The report showed that HRDD frameworks and instruments need to be carefully designed and implemented, to avoid being a mere tick-box exercise, or worse, lead to a shift of burden and costs to the most vulnerable parts of value chains (see our blog here).
We believe sustainable corporate governance legislation should address the root causes of human rights violations, lead to a real shift in companies’ practices, and bring about positive change on the ground for small farmers and workers. (see our paper on Why Purchasing Practices Must Be a Part of Upcoming Due Diligence Legislation).
In order to achieve this, we believe that the HREDD component of the Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative should:
- Cover the entire value chain
- Address purchasing practices
- Prevent disengagement from vulnerable suppliers
- Support long-term sourcing relationships
- Aim at living wages and living incomes
- Require rightsholder consultation
- Encourage the adoption of mission-led business models
For more information on our recommendations, please find our Demands paper here.
FURTHER READING
Fair Trade movement
- Fairtrade International: Vision for Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence, September 2020
- Fairtrade International: Our Commitment to Human Rights, September 2020
- FTAO Blog: Ensuring Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation Works for Small Farmers and Workers, 8 June 2020
- University of Greenwich research Report: Making Human Rights Due Diligence Frameworks Work for Small Farmer and Workers, 8 June 2020
- Joint civil society letter on the announcement of EU due diligence & directors’ duties legislation, 23 June 2020
- FTAO and CLAC: Why Purchasing Practices Must Be a Part of Upcoming Due Diligence Legislation, November 2020 (article for Business and Human Rights Resource Centre compendium Towards EU Mandatory Due Diligence Legislation)
Civil society
- Civil society organisations call on policymakers to define meaningful supply chain reporting requirements
- Civil society statement on the adoption of European Parliament Due Diligence & Corporate Accountability Legislative Report
- European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ)
- Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
- ECCJ and Anti-Slavery International: What if? Case studies of human rights abuses and environmental harm linked to EU companies, and how EU due diligence laws could help protect people and the planet, 11 September 2020
- Joint statement on key principal elements of an EU due diligence legislation, 1 September 2020, Action Aid, Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Clean Clothes Campaign, CIDSE, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, European Coalition for Corporate Justice, FIDH, Friends of the Earth Europe, Global Witness and Oxfam.
- ECCJ: Map and comparative analysis of mHRDD laws and legislative proposals in Europe, 28 May 2020
- Action Aid: We mean business: protecting women’s rights in global supply chains, 2 March 2020
- ECCJ Legal Brief: EU Model Legislation on Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights and the Environment, 26 February 2020
European Union context
- Study on directors’ duties and sustainable corporate governance, 29 July 2020 (commissioned by European Commission DG Justice and Consumers)
- Civil Society Joint Letter to Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders on corporate governance, 23 June 2020
- Study on due diligence requirements through the supply chain, 20 February 2020 (commissioned by European Commission DG Justice and Consumers)
National context
- Civil Society Open Letter Finnish Presidency, 5 February 2019
- French Due Diligence Law
- The UK Modern Slavery Act, 2015
Global context
- OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19): COVID-19 and responsible business conduct, 16 April 2020
- OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
- OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
- OECD due diligence guidance by sector
- ILO Tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy (MNE Declaration) – 5th Edition, March 2017
- UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP)
- UN: Gender Dimensions of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
- UN Zero Draft Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate, in International Human Rights Law, the activities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises (Zero Draft Treaty) second revised draft 6 August 2020