#42 Julia Otten and Andreas Rasche: Europe's Supply Chain Law (CSDDD) - What is Really Happening?

In this new Frankly Speaking episode, Richard Howitt and his guests ask what is really happening in Europe's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the proposed law on how companies identify, prevent and remedy human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chains.

Given political agreement by EU governments and members of the European Parliament before Christmas 2023, some governments undertook a volte face and indicated they would not support the law at the final administrative stage, when it would normally be nodded through without even discussion.

To guide us on why this is happening and what will happen now, Richard is joined by Andreas Rasche, professor of Business in Society at Copenhagen Business School and author of the book Corporate Sustainability, and Julia Otten, Senior Policy Officer at Frank Bold and lead on the Responsible Companies’ work on Corporate Due Diligence.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about: 

• Why the CSDDD is important
• What really happened during this last-minute volte-face against the Directive
• The impact of German coalition politics on this European legislative process and why Chancellor Olaf Scholz did not override these objections
• How the Due Diligence Directive is not creating a competitive disadvantage for European companies but rather levelling the playing field
• If Germany is still a reliable partner