© Provided by The GuardianPhotograph: Alex Segre/Alamy Stock Photo
The EU took a step closer to holding companies to account for environmental damage and human rights abuses committed by their subsidiaries and suppliers overseas, with a vote in the European parliament on Wednesday.
MEPs voted by a large majority, 504 to 79 (with 112 abstentions), to push forward with proposed legislation that would require companies to conduct due diligence throughout their supply chain, to root out abuses and environmental harm such as deforestation and pollution.
The European commission is expected to table a law in June based on the MEPs' vote. The legislation should oblige companies to identify, address and remedy any aspects of their supply chain that could infringe human rights, the environment or good governance. The rules would apply to all businesses operating within the EU, including those based outside EU member states, such as UK companies.
© Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy Stock PhotoTesco has sourced chicken fed on soya from the Cerrado tropical biome region in Brazil.
Lara Wolters, the Dutch MEP who acted as rapporteur, said: "This new law on corporate due diligence will set the standard for responsible business conduct in Europe and beyond. We refuse to accept that deforestation or forced labour are part of the global supply chains. Companies will have to avoid, and address, harm done to people and planet in their supply chains."
Video: The penal colony where Kremlin critic Navalny is expected to serve time (AFP)
The penal colony where Kremlin critic Navalny is expected to serve time
![UP NEXT]()
UP NEXT
She said the rules would ensure "fairness, a level playing field and legal clarity" for businesses and consumers.
The vote was a victory for campaigners who have long raised concerns that companies selling to European consumers have been associated with, and directly or indirectly responsible for, behaviour and environmental damage overseas that would be illegal within the EU.
Many companies, including large supermarkets and the owners of household brands, sell products associated with deforestation. A Guardian investigation last year found Tesco, Lidl, Asda, McDonald's and Nando's, selling chicken fed on soya sourced from vast tracts of Brazil's Cerrado, or tropical savanna, cleared for soy plantations.
Other investigations have also linked supermarkets with deforestation overseas, particularly in the Amazon where large areas have been cleared for ranching. Greenpeace has tracked companies linked to deforestation in the Amazon for more than 10 years.
Clotilde Henriot, trade lead at the campaigning group ClientEarth, said: "Today's vote is unambiguous: mandatory requirements are needed to compel companies to make sure their business activities are not linked to environmental harm and human rights violations. It's no longer feasible to rely on goodwill."
Jill McArdle, corporate accountability campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said: "The era of European companies being allowed to wreck the planet and destroy livelihoods with impunity is coming to a close. This proposal would mean companies like Shell can no longer shirk responsibility in the EU for the harms they cause abroad. [It] is a step towards corporate justice."
She added that the European commission should ensure, in its drafting, that human rights and environmental violations, such as illegal logging and forced evictions, are treated as crimes so that companies can be tried under the law.
In the UK, the environment bill is also expected to include new measures that would hold companies accountable for illegal logging overseas. However, the bill has been delayed several times.