“I don’t understand this announcement.” The general director of the Maif Pascal Remurger was surprised by Emmanuel Macron’s desire to leave the European directive in the duty of surveillance of companies.
This measure is also called CS3D, It forces large groups to monitor that their immediate suppliers respect human rights and environmental regulations. Recently it has softened by the Omnibus directive, which has restricted its perimeter to the members directed alone, not including the entire value chain. Its application was also pushed from 2027 to 2028.
Pascal Demurger, who is also co -chair of the Impact France movement, an organization of French employers of committed companies, repeated that he did not understand the position of the President of the Republic “both economically and politically.”
“It was France that argued, under the French president of the European Union, the entire Green European Pact, including this directive on the duty of surveillance,” says Pascal Demurger about the BFM business on Wednesday, May 21. “Even in recent days, Éric Lombard supported a review of this directive, but never supported his suppression,” he insists.
A directive for “European sovereignty”?
It also remains a circumstance on the economic consequences of the abolition of the duty of surveillance of companies. The European Directive establishes that this obligation also applies to foreign and non -European companies, which they want to sell in Europe.
“At a time when we are talking about the protection of our markets, European sovereignty, the defense of our industry: we have a tool to restore normal competition conditions between European and non -European companies,” says Pascal’s organ.
A risk of competitiveness for French companies?
The President of the Republic has responded to the criticisms of Medef, the organization of employers that regrets a directive that “leads to aggravate the administrative and regulatory burden that already greatly weighs the competitiveness of our businesses.”
Except that not all leaders are from the opinion of Medef. The officials of some employers wonder and fear a risk of competitiveness for French companies. Because France has not waited for Europe to establish a whole legislative arsenal.
The collapse of the Rana Square in Bangladesh in 2013, during which more than 1,100 people who work in a workshops died, pushed France to become the first country to establish a duty of surveillance.
Except that it is likely to bring a pure and simple line about these obligations that provide an advantage to our European competitors. “We risk ending with obligations in France and nothing for others,” summarizes a senior employer’s official.
A “moral” responsibility
In addition, the field of this directive has been reduced sharply, so they only apply to large groups. 5,400 companies would be worried, against 16,000 in the December Initial Agreement, according to the NGO Global Witness.
Finally, he points out the “responsibilities” of the bosses: among them, “the sustainability and profitability of their business” but also “the responsibility for the consequences of the action of their business.”
“On the moral level, if we can still use this term, yes, a commercial manager must worry about the working and ecological conditions in which their suppliers work,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
