Legal & Regulatory News
EU Platform on Sustainable Finance publishes report on the minimum safeguards for human rights under the Taxonomy Regulation
11 October 2022On 11 October 2022, the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance (the Platform) published their final report advising on the application of minimum safeguards for human rights to be included in the EU Taxonomy (the Report), Articles 3 and 18.
When looking at how to embed minimum standards into EU legislation, the Platform focussed on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). The Report identifies four core topics for which compliance with minimum standards should be defined, namely: human rights, including workers' rights; bribery and corruption; taxation; and fair competition.
The Report also suggests that the minimum standards should be revisited once the CSRD and CSDDD have been finalised, and recommends that the following should be considered:
- inadequate or non-existent corporate due diligence processes on human rights, including labour rights, bribery, taxation, and fair competition as a sign of non-compliance with minimum standards;
- final liability of companies in respect of breaches of any of the above topics as a sign of non-compliance with minimum standards;
- the lack of collaboration with a National Contact Point (NCP), and an assessment of non-compliance with OECD NCP as a sign of non-compliance; and
- non-response to allegations by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre as a sign of non-compliance.
Click here to view the Report.