Changes from plenary report to adopted text

RemovedDRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

AddedTEXTS ADOPTED

Removedon the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market

AddedP9_TA(2024)0309

Removed(COM(2022)0453 – C90307/2022 – 2022/0269(COD))

AddedProhibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market

AddedCommittee on International Trade, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

AddedPE746.734

AddedEuropean Parliament legislative resolution of 23 April 2024 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market (COM(2022)0453 – C9-0307/2022 – 2022/0269(COD))

▸6 unchanged paragraphs

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2022)0453),

– having regard to Article 294(2) and Articles 114 and 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C90307/2022),

– having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 24 January 2023,

Added– having regard to the provisional agreement approved by the committees responsible under Rule 74(4) of its Rules of Procedure and the undertaking given by the Council representative by letter of 13 March 2024 to approve Parliament’s position, in accordance with Article 294(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the joint deliberations of the Committee on International Trade and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure,

Changed––– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Fisheries and the Committee on Legal Affairs,

▸4 unchanged paragraphs

– having regard to the report of the Committee on International Trade and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (A9-0306/2023),

1. Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

2. Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

3. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Change 1

RemovedRecital 1: (1) As recognised in the Preamble to the 2014 Protocol to Convention No. 29 on forced labour (‘ILO Convention No. 29’) of the International Labour Organization (‘ILO’), forced labour constitutes a serious violation of human dignity and fundamental human rights, contributes to the perpetuation of poverty and stands in the way of the achievement of decent work for all. The ILO declared the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour as a principle concerning the fundamental rights. The ILO classifies ILO Convention No. 29, including the supplementing 2014 Protocol to Convention No. 29 and the Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation No. 203 and the ILO Convention No.105 on the abolition of forced labour (‘ILO Convention No.105’) as fundamental ILO Conventions16 and issues recommendations to prevent, eliminate, and remedy forced labour16a. Forced labour includes work and services, which is performed or provided along the value chain, and is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily17. According to the ILO and the UN, some economic activities in certain productive sectors such as processing, agriculture, garment and fisheries, and in certain services sector, such as transportation, storage and logistics, cleaning and seasonal work have a higher occurrence of forced labour17a. This definition applies to work or service exacted by governments and public authorities as well a…

AddedP9_TC1-COD(2022)0269

RemovedRecital 2: (2) The use of forced labour is widespread in the world. It is estimated that about 27.6 million people were in forced labour in 202118. Vulnerable and marginalised groups in a society, such as women, children, ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, lower casters, indigenous and tribal people, migrants, especially if they are undocumented, have a precarious status and operate in the informal economy, are particularly susceptible to be pressured into performing forced labour. Even when it is not state imposed, forced labour is often a consequence of the absence or lack of good governance of certain economic operators and a demonstration of a state’s failure to enforce social and labour rights, particularly for vulnerable and marginalised groups. Forced labour can also take place as a result of authorities' tacit consent. Women and girls account for 11.8 million of the total number of people engaged in forced labour. More than 3.3 million of all those engaged in forced labour are children. Between 2016 and 2021, the estimated number of people engaged in forced labour increased by 2.7 million18a. Migrant workers who are not protected by law or are unable to exercise their rights face a higher risk of exposure to forced labour than other workers do. According to the ILO, 15 % of all adults engaged in forced labour are migrants18b. The Union´s Agency for Fundamental Rights has found that this is also the case within the Union. Abusive employers use the weak position of migr…

AddedPosition of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 23 April 2024 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2024/… of the European Parliament and of the Council on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937

RemovedRecital 3: (3) The eradication of forced labour in all its forms, including state imposed forced labour, is a priority for the Union. Respect for human dignity and the universality and indivisibility of human rights are firmly enshrined in Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union. In order to achieve Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Union should uphold and promote its values and contribute to the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child. Article 5 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union explicitly prohibits slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and trafficking in human beings and Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights provide that no one is to be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly interpreted Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights as requiring Member States to penalise and effectively prosecute any act maintaining a person in the situations described set out in Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.19 The right to effective remedies for violations of fundamental rights is a human right, and a fundamental element in the process of effective prosecution of crimes. Existing Union law, the UN Guiding Principles on the Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the Council of Europe and the OECD affirm that victims have the right to an effective remedy for business-related human rights violations or abuses, including fo…

Added(As an agreement was reached between Parliament and Council, Parliament's position corresponds to the final legislative act, Regulation (EU) 2024/3015.)

RemovedRecital 4: (4) All Member States have ratified the fundamental ILO Conventions on forced labour and child labour20. They are therefore legally obliged to prevent and eliminate the use of forced labour and to report regularly to the ILO. However, there are Member States which have not yet ratified the Protocol to ILO Convention No. 29, despite Council Decisions calling on Member States for a ratification and implementation20a. The ILO estimates that there are 880 000 forced labour victims inside the Union, in addition to the forced labour involved inter alia in the Union’s imports from the rest of the world20b . Moreover, there continue to be shortcomings in the implementation of the fundamental ILO Conventions20c. It is necessary that Member States fully implement the fundamental ILO conventions and correctly transpose all the Union legislation aimed at combating forced labour, labour rights violations and human trafficking in order to enforce the import and export ban of any product or service using forced labour. This Regulation aims to legally bind Member States to prevent and bring to an end the use of forced labour, to provide to victims protection and access to remedy and effective remediation, such as compensations, to penalise non-compliance with decisions referred to in Article 6(4). According to the ILO, remediation remains one of the key policy priorities for addressing forced labour. In that regard, Protocol to ILO Convention No. 29 stipulates that all victims of forced or c…

RemovedRecital 5: (5) Through its policies and legislative initiatives the Union seeks to eradicate the use of forced labour and promote decent work and labour rights worldwide. The Union promotes due diligence in accordance with international guidelines and principles established by international organisations, including the ILO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (hereinafter “OECD”) and the United Nations (hereinafter “UN”), to ensure that forced labour does not find a place in the supply chains of undertakings established in the Union.

RemovedRecital 6: (6) Union trade policy supports the fight against forced labour in both unilateral and bilateral trade relationships. The trade and sustainable development chapters of Union trade agreements contain a commitment to ratify and effectively implement the fundamental ILO Conventions, which include ILO Convention No. 29 and ILO Convention No. 105, whereas trade and gender chapters and provisions establish a gender lens that is essential for the economic empowerment of women in order to combat gendered forced labour. Moreover, unilateral trade preferences under the Union’s General Scheme of Preferences can be withdrawn for serious and systematic violations of ILO Convention No. 29 and ILO Convention No. 105.

RemovedRecital 6 a (new): (6a) Forced labour has a distinct impact on vulnerable and marginalised groups, such as children, women, migrants, refugees or indigenous peoples, and therefore an intersectional and gender sensitive approach is essential to combat forced labour effectively. This Regulation should therefore aim to achieve the objectives of the ILO Convention 182, Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, the Beijing Declaration, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the ILO Convention 169, as well as other relevant international agreements and conventions.

RemovedRecital 8: (8) [In particular, Directive 20XX/XX/EU on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence sets out horizontal due diligence obligations for companies to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for actual and potential adverse impacts on human rights, including forced labour, and the environment that they caused, contributed to or are directly linked to the company’s own operations and its subsidiaries in its value chains, in accordance with international human and labour rights standards and environmental conventions. That Directive also strengthens access to remedy for those affected by such impacts. Those obligations apply to large companies over a certain threshold in terms of number of employees and net turnover, and to smaller companies in high-impact sectors over a certain threshold in terms of number of employees and net turnover.22 Consistency between that Directive and this Regulation should be ensured.

RemovedRecital 10: (10) Articles [XX] of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council require Member States to ensure that certain economic operators annually publish non-financial statements in which they report on the impact of their activity on environmental, social and employee matters, respect for human rights, including regarding forced labour, anti-corruption and bribery matters.26 [Furthermore, Directive 20XX/XX/EU on Corporate Sustainability Reporting puts forward detailed reporting requirements for covered companies regarding the respect of human rights, including in global supply chains. The information that undertakings disclose about human rights should include, where relevant, information about forced labour in their supply chains.27 ]

RemovedRecital 10 a (new): (10a) As a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Union is committed to promoting a rules-based, open, multilateral trading system. Any measures introduced by the Union that affect trade should be WTO compliant. Furthermore, all measures introduced by the Union that affect trade should take into account the possible response of the Union’s trade partners and ensure that the enforcement of the measure is not perceived as a unilateral, protectionist measure.

RemovedRecital 12 a (new): (12a) Promoting decent work and a human-centred future of work ensuring the respect of fundamental principles and human rights, promoting social dialogue as well as the ratification and effective implementation of relevant ILO conventions and protocols, strengthening responsible management in global supply chains and access to social protection are core priorities of the Union as enshrined in the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024.

RemovedRecital 17: (17) The market ban, which enables the prohibition of import and export of products and services made with forced labour, should contribute to the international efforts to abolish forced labour. The definition of ‘forced labour’ should therefore be aligned with the definition laid down in ILO Convention No. 29. The definition of ‘forced labour applied by state authorities’ should be aligned with ILO Convention No. 105, which prohibits specifically the use of forced labour as punishment for the expression of political views, for the purposes of economic development, as a means of labour discipline, as a punishment for participation in strikes, or as a means of racial, religious or other discrimination 31. Article 3(a) of ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour refers to all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities prohibits exposing persons with disabilities to forced labour and requires that persons with disabilities are protected, on an equal basis with others, from forced or compulsory labour. The principle of equal treatment should also apply in sheltered workshops. Where products or services originating from geographic areas, production…

RemovedRecital 17 a (new): (17a) Based on the definition of forced labour specified in ILO Convention No. 29 and used in this Regulation, the ‘ILO Indicators of Forced Labour’ and the ‘Hard to See, Harder to Count’ ILO guidelines represent the most common signs that point to the possible existence of a forced labour case and should be taken into account when enforcing the prohibition. However, these indicators may be insufficient for the identification of forced labour imposed by state authorities. These practices of forced labour are based on systemic and global coercive policies that require additional, specifically designed indicators.

RemovedRecital 18: (18) Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (’SMEs’) can have limited resources and ability to ensure that the products they place or make available on the Union market are free from forced labour. The Commission should therefore issue thorough guidelines on due diligence in relation to forced labour, which should take into account also the size and economic resources of economic operators. In addition, the Commission should issue clear guidelines on forced-labour risk indicators, including how to identify them, which should be based on independent and verifiable information, including reports from international organisations, in particular the International Labour Organization, whose ‘Hard to see, harder to count’ guidelines are the current gold-standard for identification of forced labour.

RemovedRecital 18 a (new): (18a) The Commission should also issue guidelines on how to engage in dialogue with competent authorities in order to help economic operators, and in particular SMEs, as well as other stakeholders, to comply with the requirements of the prohibition. Furthermore, the Commission should also issue guidelines to assist any person or association in submitting information.

RemovedRecital 18 b (new): (18b) Taking into account the variety of Union law dealing with forced labour issues, the Commission should provide additional guidance for economic operators, in particular SMEs, on how to apply the different obligations stemming from Union law. The Commission should also, where appropriate, prevent unnecessary administrative burdens on SMEs. In addition, the Commission should develop accompanying measures to support the efforts of economic operators and their business partners in the same supply chain, in particular the SMEs. Those measures shall include a one-stop shop for all matters related to the application of this Regulation and support to multi-stakeholder initiatives.

RemovedRecital 19: (19) The competent authorities of the Member States should monitor the market to identify violations of the prohibition. In appointing those competent authorities, Member States should ensure that those authorities have sufficient human and financial resources and that their staff has the necessary competences and knowledge, especially with regard to human rights, labour rights, gender equality, supply chain management and due diligence processes. Competent authorities should closely coordinate with national labour inspections and judicial and law enforcement authorities, including those responsible for the fight against trafficking in human beings in such a way as to avoid jeopardising investigations by such authorities.

RemovedRecital 21: (21) When identifying potential violations of the prohibition, the Commission or the competent authorities should follow a risk-based approach and assess all information available to them. In order to implement the risk-based approach in the prioritisation of their investigations, the Commission and competent authorities should take into account the size and economic resources of the economic operator, and in particular if this operator is a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise, the share of forced labour components in the final product, the quantity of products concerned, the scale of suspected forced labour, and whether forced labour imposed by state authorities could be a concern. They should also take into account if the economic operator is under the scope of Directive XXX [CSDD] and has to perform mandatory due diligence. The Commission or competent authorities should initiate an investigation where, based on their assessment of all available information, or on the basis of any other facts available where it was not possible to gather information and evidence, they establish that there is a substantiated concern of a violation of the prohibition. Before initiating an investigation, competent authorities should be able to request additional information from economic operators under assessment but also from other relevant stakeholders, including the persons or associations having submitted relevant information to competent authorities and any other stakeholder working …

RemovedRecital 22: (22) Before initiating an investigation, competent authorities should request from the economic operators under assessment information on actions taken to mitigate, prevent, bring to an end risks of forced labour or remediate forced labour cases in their operations and supply chains with respect to the products under assessment. Carrying out such due diligence in relation to forced labour should contribute to helping the economic operator to be at a lower risk of having forced labour in its operations and supply chains. Appropriate due diligence could mean that forced labour issues in the supply chain have been identified and addressed in accordance with relevant Union legislation and international standards. That implies that where the competent authority considers that there is no substantiated concern of a violation of the prohibition, or that the reasons that motivated the existence of a substantiated concern have been eliminated, for instance due to, but not limited to the applicable legislation, guidelines, recommendations or any other due diligence in relation to forced labour being applied in a way that mitigates, prevents and brings to an end the risk of forced labour, and, where possible, demonstrates that remediation of forced labour cases has been provided, no investigation should be initiated. Economic operators, which are not within the scope of [Directive 20XX/XX/EU on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence], shall not be disadvantaged for the sole fact of not …

RemovedRecital 23: (23) In order to ensure cooperation among the Commission and competent authorities designated under this and other relevant legislation and in order to ensure consistency in their actions and decisions, competent authorities designated under this Regulation should request information from other relevant authorities, where necessary, on whether economic operators under assessment are subject to and carry out due diligence in relation to forced labour in accordance with applicable Union legislation or Member States legislation setting out due diligence and transparency requirements with respect to forced labour. When requesting information from economic operators, competent authorities should whenever possible follow the Commission’s once-only principle, through increased cooperation and dialogue between authorities who are engaged in overseeing product regulation.

RemovedRecital 23 a (new): (23a) Considering the robust amount of evidence available regarding forced labour cases, in particular products, regions or sectors, competent authorities should, after a risk-assessment, focus their investigations on situations that present a higher risk of use of forced labour and that have an increased societal and economic impact, due to the large dimension of economic operators or their presence in a large number of supply chains.

RemovedRecital 23 b (new): (23b) In order to ensure consistency in the actions and decisions by competent authorities, the Commission should closely coordinate with competent authorities.

RemovedRecital 24: (24) During the preliminary phase of investigation, the Commission and competent authorities should focus on the economic operators involved in the steps of the supply chain where there is a higher risk of forced labour with respect to the products under investigation, while also taking into account the potential imbalance of power in the concerned supply chain. In their assessment, they should also take into account the size and economic resources of the economic operator, the quantity of products concerned, the share of forced labour components in the final product, the scale of the suspected forced labour and whether forced labour imposed by state authorities could be a concern.

RemovedRecital 25: (25) Competent authorities, when requesting information during the investigation, should prioritise to the extent possible and consistent with the effective conduct of the investigation the economic operators under investigation that are involved in the steps of the supply chain as close as possible to where the likely risk of forced labour occurs and take into account the size and economic resources of the economic operators, the quantity of products concerned, as well as the scale of suspected forced labour.

RemovedRecital 25 a (new): (25a) The Commission should call upon external expertise to provide an indicative, non-exhaustive, verifiable and regularly updated database of forced labour risks in specific geographic areas or with respect to specific products including with regard to forced labour imposed by state authorities. The database should be based on independent and verifiable information, including reports from international organisations, in particular the International Labour Organization, civil society, business organisations, social partners, and experience from implementing Union law setting out due diligence requirements with respect to forced labour. The database should include a list of all decisions of competent authorities, including information on the provision of remediation of forced labour cases that enabled the withdrawal of the ban.

RemovedRecital 25 b (new): (25b) Where there is clear, reliable and verifiable evidence that products produced in specific economic sectors within specific geographic areas present a high risk of having been made with forced labour imposed by state authorities, those sectors in those areas should be identified in the database established under this Regulation. In order to facilitate for the competent authorities the investigations of cases where there is evidence of high risk of forced labour imposed by state authorities, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by determining specific economic sectors in specific geographic areas, where such risk occurs. For the products coming from those areas and those sectors, economic operators concerned should bear the burden of establishing that forced labour has not been used at any stage of extraction, harvest, production, or manufacture of a product, including working or processing related to the product.

RemovedRecital 26: (26) In all cases other than those falling within the areas and sectors determined as high risk of forced labour imposed by state authorities, competent authorities should bear the burden of establishing that forced labour has been used at any stage of production, manufacture, harvest or extraction of a product, including working or processing related to the product on the basis of all information and evidence gathered during the investigation, including its preliminary phase. To ensure their right to due process, economic operators should have the opportunity to provide information in their defence to the competent authorities throughout the investigation.

RemovedRecital 27: (27) The Commission and competent authorities that establish that economic operators violated the prohibition, should without delay prohibit the placing and making available of such products on the Union market and their export from the Union, and require the economic operators that have been investigated to withdraw the relevant products already made available from the Union market and donate perishable products to charitable or public interest purposes. If such products are not perishable, economic operators should recycle those products, and if that is not possible, they should have the products destroyed, rendered inoperable, or otherwise disposed of in accordance with national law consistent with Union law, including Union legislation on waste management. The prohibition to place and make available the products on the Union market and to export them from the Union should only be lifted if economic operators are able to demonstrate that forced labour has been eradicated from the supply chain and forced labour cases have been remediated. The assessment of the fulfilment of such conditions should rest with the authority responsible for the decision. The prohibition and the subsequent withdrawal should concern the specific products identified in the decision.

RemovedRecital 28: (28) In that decision, the Commission or competent authorities should state the findings of the investigation, and the information underpinning the findings, and set a reasonable time within which the economic operators should comply with the decision, as well as information allowing for the identification of the product to which the decision applies. The Commission should be empowered to adopt the implementing acts necessary to specify the details about the information to be contained in such decisions. The decisions from the Commission or competent authorities should be made publicly available.

RemovedRecital 29: (29) In setting a reasonable time to comply with the order, the Commission and competent authorities should take into account the size and economic resources of the economic operators concerned.

RemovedRecital 30: (30) If the economic operators fail to comply with the decision of the Commission or the competent authorities by the end of the established timeframe, the Commission or the competent authorities should ensure that the relevant products are prohibited from being placed or made available on the Union market, exported or withdrawn from the Union market and that any such products remaining with the relevant economic operators are donated to charitable or public interest purposes, in case they are perishable. If such products are not perishable, economic operators should recycle those products, and if that is not possible, they should have the products destroyed, rendered inoperable, or otherwise disposed of in accordance with national law consistent with Union law, including Union legislation on waste management at the expense of the economic operators.

RemovedRecital 31: (31) Economic operators should have the possibility to request an administrative review of the decisions by the competent authorities and by the Commission, after having provided new substantial information showing that it cannot be concluded that the relevant products have been made with forced labour. Competent authorities and the Commission should withdraw their decision where they establish on the basis of that new information, that it cannot be established that the products have been made with forced labour. The decisions adopted by the Commission under this Regulation are subject to review by the Court of Justice in accordance with Article 263 TFEU.

RemovedRecital 32: (32) Any person, whether it is a natural or legal person, or any association not having legal personality, should be allowed to submit information to the competent authorities when it considers that products made with forced labour are placed and made available on the Union market and to be informed of the outcome of the assessment of their submission. Submissions should be addressed to one or more competent authorities. Adequate protection measures should be put in place to ensure the safety of any person associated with the submission or the information contained within it, including from retaliation and reprisals. Where necessary, those protection measures could go beyond the provisions in Directive (EU) 2019/1937. To ensure ease of use for the submission of information and the standardisation of the information provided, the Commission should set up a mechanism for the submission of information, such as a designated webportal at the Union level, available in all official languages of the institutions of the Union, and free of charge, and ensure that it is user-friendly and easily accessible, including for persons with disabilities.

RemovedRecital 33: (33) The Commission should issue detailed guidelines in order to facilitate the implementation of the prohibition by economic operators and competent authorities. Such guidelines should include guidance on due diligence in relation to forced labour, in particular for all economic operators that fall outside the scope of the [Directive 20XX/XX/EU on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence], since they will not have to comply with any mandatory due diligence obligations, and complementary information for the competent authorities to implement the prohibition. The guidance for economic operators outside the scope of [CSDD] should focus in particular on compliance in cases where these economic operators are faced with a reversed burden of proof as a consequence of delegated acts adopted by the Commission of forced labour imposed by state authorities. The guidance on due diligence in relation to forced labour should build on the Guidance on due diligence for Union businesses to address the risk of forced labour in their operations and supply chains published by the Commission and the European External Action Service in July 2021. The guidelines should be consistent with other Commission guidelines in this regard and relevant international organisations’ guidelines. The guidelines should provide tailored recommendations for different sectors of activity, taking into account specificities of the activities and the respective supply chains. The reports from international organisations…