Corporate lobbyists outnumbered representatives of trade unions and NGOs by five to one at today’s simplification roundtable on the European Commission plans to weaken laws protecting workers and the environment and needed to prevent tragedies like the Rana Plaza disaster. IndustriAll Europe and ETUC were left to speak up for working people.
Ahead of the closed-door roundtable, industriAll Europe joined a rally opposing the attack on the EU’s corporate transparency rule-book.
The battle lines are drawn, and the stakes are high for the future of workers’ rights and environmental protections in Europe: business interests must not trump social and environmental safeguards.
Stand Up for Accountability and Transparency
IndustriAll Europe’s General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling, says: “Undermining the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the deal on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will severely impact corporate transparency and accountability. These regulations are crucial for ensuring that companies are held accountable, operate responsibly, and respect both the workers they depend on and the environment.
“Workers’ rights must be protected. IndustriAll Europe is not against common sense simplification but this agenda being pursued by big corporate interests is a wolf in sheep`s clothing – they are aiming to dismantle, delay and hollow-out rules which ensure corporate accountability and transparency. It is appalling that the European Commission seems to be playing into their game. It makes a mockery of democratic decision-making in the EU.”