Mounting Shortly before noon today, the European Parliament adopted, by 382 votes to 249 (with 13 abstentions), the European Commission’s first and much-criticised legislative package on corporate sustainability rules: Omnibus I.

Abandoning their mission to safeguard the public interest in order to serve multinationals, oil and gas lobbies and foreign powers, the European Commission and right-wing and far-right MEPs have inaugurated with this first Omnibus their grand cycle of deregulation of the European Union’s social, environmental, health and climate standards. Omnibus I, deemed unconstitutional by more than 100 law professors (1) and drafted by Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné through an undemocratic process that is currently under investigation by the European Ombudsman (2) , was intended as a symbolic act to celebrate the takeover of our democracies by industrial lobbies: the demolition of the European directive on corporate due diligence (CS3D). 

The Omnibus was adopted by a right-wing/far-right alliance that destroyed the corporate due diligence through a series of identical amendments tabled by the European of the People’s Party (EPP) right wing group and the far right group European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) ahead of the vote, and adopted with the support of the far right groups Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). 

The European Parliament’s adoption of the first Omnibus marks the collapse of European parliamentary democracy and the beginning of a new era. 

Result of the European Parliament vote on the amendment tabled by The Left, the Socialists (S&D) and the Greens (Greens/EFA) concerning the maintenance of the effective and mandatory civil liability regime for all EU Member States, as adopted in 2024. The conservative right and far right, as well as nineteen liberal right-wing MEPs (Renew) out of sixty-four votants, refused to defend access to justice for victims of human rights violations committed by multinationals and their subcontractors.

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“This alliance between the right and the far right opens the European Union to the worst winds of globalisation and will allow TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Shein, Zara and their peers to operate with impunity. After the Rana Plaza and Uyghur forced labour scandals, the adoption of the Omnibus is a sign of Europe’s ethical collapse,” commented Swann Bommier, Advocacy Director at BLOOM. “Victims of modern slavery and ecocide will continue to face a denial of justice. For all human rights and environmental defenders, this vote, in the midst of COP30, constitutes an absolute moral failure. For multinationals, it guarantees handsome profits ahead. For the European industrial fabric, it heralds unbridled unfair competition and an economic disaster waiting to happen.” 

The Corporate Due Diligence Directive was a cornerstone of the Green Deal. It was adopted to thunderous applause and hailed as historic in the European Parliament less than two years ago, in the spring of 2024. A time that now seems like a distant past.

“Europe has descended into hell,” lamented Claire Nouvian, founder of BLOOM. “Citizens just need to open their eyes and decide in future elections what kind of world they want to live in: the chaos of a world ruled by Trump, Putin and other carbofascists against a backdrop of climate collapse, or a democracy that guarantees peace, rights and freedoms for all. The right wing has clarified its position, leaving the republican camp and now accepting to govern with the far right. We know what happens next; Europe has already been through this. It is up to voters to vote accordingly.”

The secret alliance between the right and the far right exposed in broad daylight

From today onwards, the right wing EPP can no longer claim to be a pro-democracy group. It has reached an agreement with the European far right to sabotage European law and respond to the orders of fossil fuel lobbies and foreign powers. “Moral corruption has taken precedence over the public interest,” despairs Claire Nouvian.

Two key provisions of the due diligence have been crushed by this infernal union of the right and far right: corporate civil liability and climate transition plans.  

Corporate civil liability shattered:

Amendments 207-266-348 tabled by The Left, the Socialists (S&D) and the Greens (Greens/EFA) were rejected by 378 votes to 251. The Warborn report (EPP), which is now going into trilogue, falls back on the European Commission’s deplorable initial proposal, which empties this core due diligence disposition of its substance by establishing that each Member State will have the discretion to decide whether or not to adopt a system of access to justice for victims of human rights violations committed by multinationals.

The principle of harmony between European laws is blown apart by the absence of any obligation for states to establish a civil liability regime for companies. This will lead to a race to the bottom, a massive social, climatic and environmental dumping. 

The Commission’s proposal adopted today marks a major step backwards in law. It is bound to be challenged in court on the basis of the principle of non-regression enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. 

Climate transition plans scrapped:  

The amendments tabled by the EPP and ECR (311-398) were adopted by 365 votes to 276: they remove the climate transition plans that required companies to implement a strategy in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the European Union’s climate neutrality target for 2050. In the midst of COP30, MEPs have thus demonstrated the depth of their irresponsibility.

Member States, the last guardians of democracy during the trilogue

It is now up to the states to stem this movement to dismantle European law during the trilogue. They can still oppose the Parliament’s vote and challenge the legislative procedure in view of the risk it poses to our democracies, our rights, our economies and our future, not only in terms of climate change.

As a reminder, this summer, the International Court of Justice issued an opinion reminding states of their legal responsibility to combat climate change and compel companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in order to protect the global climate system.

So be it.

END NOTES

(1) https://thegoodlobby.eu/over-100-legal-experts-warn-omnibus-i-risks-breaching

(2) https://www.clientearth.org/latest/documents/complaint-to-the-european-ombudsman-on-the-omnibus-proposal/