Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 9 July 2020 - Brussels

The 2019 Human Rights Annual report - Stability and Security in the Mediterranean and the negative role of Turkey - Situation in Belarus (debate)

  Heidi Hautala (Verts/ALE). – Madam President, in the Annual Human Rights Report, the range of activities and initiatives in the area of business and human rights is certainly to be commended. Yet, rights which are not legally enforceable are rights in name only. After many years of hard work here in the European Parliament and in civil society, finally, we will see that a growing number of Member States and the Commission are increasingly accepting that mandatory legislation is needed for business and human rights.

At the end of April, there was a milestone event when the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, committed to a legislative initiative on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence obligations for companies operating in the EU area. The German Council Presidency now has committed itself to an EU action plan on business and human rights. This is indeed long overdue because the EU has been very diligent about its Member States adopting action plans, but as we say, at least in Finnish, the shoemaker’s children sometimes don’t have shoes. The EU still lacks this action plan and we only can welcome it.

We can also see that now would be a very timely moment for the EU to start to make a meaningful contribution in the international negotiations among the UN frame for business and human rights because we have started to act at home, so please ask for the mandate from the Member States to start these negotiations.