According to the draft Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the due diligence of companies in the field of sustainability and on amendment to Directive (EU) 2019/1937, Member States are to adopt or amend their own laws on the obligations of companies in relation to the sustainability of their business, so that specified categories of the company should now, in their value chains, identify, prevent and mitigate violations of human rights and environmental standards. It is therefore appropriate for the companies concerned to pay attention to the issue in question before the adoption or transposition of the directive in question. What is clear, however, is that the companies to which the directive will apply will need to have a system of internal policies and value chain audits in place. As in the case of commenting on the legislative process, greater efficiency can also be achieved in the implementation of legal regulations. This efficiency will be reflected in the reduction of costs (either financial, time or organisational) in order to ensure compliance with the legislation.
This Directive applies to companies that meet one of the following conditions:
-
the company had more than 500 employees on average and had a net worldwide turnover of more than EUR 150 million in the last financial year for which annual financial statements have been prepared;
-
the company did not reach the thresholds under point (a), but had more than 250 employees on average and had a net worldwide turnover of more than EUR 40 million in the last financial year for which annual financial statements have been prepared, provided that at least 50% of this net turnover was generated in one or more of the following sectors:
(i) the manufacture of textiles, leather and related products (including footwear), and the wholesale trade of textiles, clothing and footwear;
(ii) agriculture, forestry, fisheries (including aquaculture), the manufacture of food products, and the wholesale trade of agricultural raw materials, live animals, wood, food, and beverages;
(iii) the extraction of mineral resources regardless from where they are extracted (including crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, lignite, metals and metal ores, as well as all other, non-metallic minerals and quarry products), the manufacture of basic metal products, other non-metallic mineral products and fabricated metal products (except machinery and equipment), and the wholesale trade of mineral resources, basic and intermediate mineral products (including metals and metal ores, construction materials, fuels, chemicals and other intermediate products).
The environmental audit service is under preparation.
