The EU Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States voted in favour of the supply chain law. This means the law is one step further in the adoption process. The rules must be voted on in the European Parliament before they come into force.
Now, what is this law about. As reported earlier, the EU has been investigating the possible stopping of goods entering the Union if they were produced using "forced labour." The rules are to provide a framework for communities to sue EU companies for human rights abuses and environmental harm in their supply chains.
A system would be set up in which a list of high-risk areas and sectors would be created. When a company wants to import goods from the list, or produced in areas from the list, the burden to proof that no forced labour was used would fall on the company, not on the authorities.
The process leading up to the approval has meant that many concessions were done. The new agreement now applies to companies with more than 1000 employees, up from 500 and a net turnover of €450m, three times the amount previously agreed. Environmental groups estimate the changes will exclude 70% of the companies the law was meant to cover.