According to Minister Habeck, Germany should wait for the recently adopted new European law on corporate liability. His liberal finance minister colleague Christian Lindner (FDP) supports a possible suspension, but coalition partner SPD rejects the delay.
Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) said that his Ministry of Labor has been committed to both the national law and the European law on supply chain liability.
This liability stipulates that a company must pay attention not only to its own sustainability in production but also to that of raw material suppliers and customers. The main difference is that the European law also includes criminal provisions and fines, while the German law has almost none.
Habeck said last week that if the EU law (CSDDD directive) were quickly transposed into German law, 'we must act pragmatically in the adaptation process.' Therefore, he proposed to pause or significantly reduce the German law until the EU legislation is transposed.
Business associations warned of the disadvantages of competition with companies from other countries and therefore demanded less strict rules for supply chains.
The German Retail Federation (HDE) is pleased that Habeck is committed to preventing possible competitive disadvantages for German companies. However, the consequences of a two-year suspension cannot yet be assessed at this time. The German law is already in force and the comparable EU directive recently adopted still needs to be transposed into national legislation. EU countries now have more than two years to do this.