Brussels, February 26, 2025. Today, Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, and for Implementation and Simplification, Valdis Dombrovskis announced the much-anticipated Omnibus package on sustainability, a sweeping deregulation initiative targeting the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Taxonomy Regulation.  

Despite warnings from civil society and trade unions that the Omnibus proposal would create costly confusion and weaken protections for people and the planet, as well as opposition from businesses and investors, the EU Commission has persisted in its plan to retrace core elements of these legislations designed to fight against climate change and corporate abuse. If adopted as it stands, the Omnibus proposal would deliver a devastating blow to the EU’s commitments to climate neutrality under the Paris Agreement and its pledge to uphold human rights on the global stage. Crafted behind closed doors in a process skewed by big business interests, the proposal was shaped through an opaque, undemocratic procedure that sidelined the voices of civil society. While fossil fuel giants — some facing multiple court cases for human rights abuses — and big business lobbies were given privileged access to re-shape EU sustainability legislation, workers and communities most affected by corporate harm remained left out. 

Today’s changes proposed by the European Commission are nothing short than a gutting of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), giving reckless corporations a free pass to operate without consequences. This proposal would take us back to an era of merely voluntary measures — where human rights abuses and environmental destruction continue unchecked, with no prevention, no accountability, and no justice.  

By restricting due diligence to direct suppliers, companies will have no obligation to identify risks and potential harms beyond their immediate contracts – even if human rights and environmental abuses are widely reported and concentrated towards the bottom of supply chains, where raw materials extraction and subcontracted labour involve the most abuses. Without enforceable obligations to protect labour rights, vulnerable workers will still face union busting, unsafe working conditions and exploitation, while European multinationals continue making billions off the back of human suffering. With civil liability stripped away, survivors and victims’ families will once again be left without access to justice, unable to hold companies responsible for profiting from a system that places profit before human lives. 

The Omnibus Package proposes a number of significant changes to the existing safeguards established by the CSDDD. Particularly impactful are changes to the due diligence and climate obligations themselves, which will limit the actual effectiveness of the law, and the removal of civil liability provisions resulting in lack of enforcement and depriving victims of remedy for the harm they suffered.

1.Weakening of the due diligence obligations   

• Agreed and approved in the CSDDD: Big companies must conduct risk-based due diligence to tackle human rights and environmental abuses in their value chains. This means that businesses must prevent risks in the operations of both their direct and indirect business partners. Like this, it ensures companies scrutinise their entire value chain, focusing on tangible risks rather than just on activities closer to companies that pose no threat. Companies must also cut ties with business partners if they cannot prevent a risk or stop serious abuse. Moreover, companies must review their due diligence policies and actions annually to ensure their effectiveness. 

• Commission’s proposal to dismantle it: Under the Omnibus Proposal, the CSDDD’s risk-based approach would be severely weakened, undermining the core purpose of the directive. Big companies would, with few exceptions, be required to identify human rights and environmental risks only in their direct partners’ operations, disregarding abuses deeper in their value chain. They would also no longer be required to cut ties with partners who continue to perpetrate severe human rights and environmental abuses. Due diligence monitoring would be done only once every five years instead of annually, greatly limiting the assessment of the adequacy of corporate due diligence actions. In practice, big companies would not be required to address severe human rights abuse at the lower end of their supply chains, such as Uyghur forced labour in the automobile sector, or forced and child labour in the garment industry.

2. Access to justice: A systematic rollback of corporate accountability 

• Agreed and approved in the CSDDD:  The CSDDD was designed to ensure that victims of corporate abuse—whether environmental destruction, forced labour, or unsafe working conditions— can seek justice and obtain remedy. Big companies can face civil liability when their failure to comply with due diligence harm people and communities. EU Member States must also remove key barriers to justice, including lack of representative actions, restrictive time limits for filing claims, and prohibitive legal costs. 

• Commission’s proposal to dismantle it: As it stands, the Omnibus proposal would represent a major setback for victims seeking justice and remedy. EU Member States would no longer have an obligation to establish civil liability for harm caused by a company’s failure to meet its due diligence obligations. It would also delete the possibility of representative actions. By removing the civil liability obligation and the ability for victims to be represented by NGOs or trade unions, the Commission is effectively stripping victims of their ability to go to court to stop harm or seek compensation. Victims already face immense procedural and legal hurdles when seeking remedy. Moreover, removing civil liability would take away a key enforcement mechanism from the CSDDD, jeopardising its effectiveness. Companies could walk away from the harm they cause — without consequence. Corporate due diligence would turn into a meaningless checkbox exercise with no legal consequences.

3.Climate crisis neglect: Greenwashing instead of action 

• Agreed and approved in the CSDDD: Companies are expected not only to adopt climate transition plans but also to put them into action, with national authorities responsible for monitoring the design of transition plans and imposing penalties for non-compliance. The directive aims to make corporations more active in identifying and mitigating their climate impacts. 

• Commission’s proposal to dismantle it: Companies would not have the requirement to implement climate transition plans, turning them into a meaningless paper exercise with no impact. Instead of driving emissions reductions, these plans would now be nothing more than greenwashing—written but never put into actions. The Commission is sending a dangerous message: corporations can continue business as usual, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that urgent action is needed to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown. Those most affected—Indigenous and frontline communities who bear the brunt of climate disasters but contribute the least to global emissions—will continue to pay the price.

4.Delayed CSDDD’s transposition and application 

• Agreed and approved in the CSDDD: EU countries must pass national laws to transpose the CSDDD by 26 July 2026. In addition, companies must gradually comply with the CSDDD based on their size and turnover. Large companies with EUR 1,5 billion worldwide or EU turnover and 5,000 employees will start in July 2027, a second group will follow in July 2028, and all companies must comply from July 2029.  

• Commission’s proposal to delay it: The Omnibus proposal would extend the CSDDD’s transposition deadline by a year (26 July 2027). It would also combine phases 1 and 2, delaying the application start date for the first group of companies. As a result, the first group of companies (with over EUR 900,000 worldwide or EU turnover, and 3,000 employees) would comply with the CSDDD only by July 2028, with all companies following in 2029.  These delays would slow EU countries’ transposition efforts and compliance efforts for first-mover companies, despite the CSDDD already allowing ample preparation time to companies. This would also weaken efforts to quickly address human rights and environmental abuses in business value chains, and the climate crisis. 

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For media requests, please contact:  

Sabela Gonzalez Garcia – ECCJ Communications Manager 

sabela.gonzalez.garcia@corporatejustice.org