More than 360 civil society organisations and trade unions demand that in the upcoming legislative negotiations, the Omnibus proposal is revised to ensure that any amendments seeking to weaken corporate accountability, human rights and environmental protection are rejected.

Here is the full Joint Statement (pdf)

The key weaknesses:

• Civil liability will to a much larger extent be left to EU Member States’ discretion, with the potential of drastically reducing access to justice for victims in front of EU courts.
• Companies will only be required to assess harms attributable to direct business partners, which reduces drastically the value chain.
• There is no longer an obligation to “put […] into effect” Climate Transition Plans, which would introduce a dangerous loophole, allowing companies to comply with the provision, in theory, by simply producing a plan on paper, rather than putting it into action.
• EU Member States would no longer be able to establish more ambitious rules than the directive.
• Companies will no longer have to terminate contracts (even in cases where it is possible or likely that abuses continue).
• Stakeholder engagement will be reduced to those “directly” affected.
• The frequency of monitoring the effectiveness of due diligence measures is reduced from every year to every 5 years.
• Removal of the minimum cap on sanctions of 5% of the turnover.
• The Commission is no longer obliged to examine the necessity to apply due diligence rules.