Ahead of the vote on the European supply chain law in the European Parliament, VDMA Managing Director Thilo Brodtmann says: "The members of the European Parliament should not approve the current versions for a European supply chain law. It is time to pull the emergency brake. The European Commission's proposal for the European supply chain law and the European Parliament's draft report (Wolters report) continue to overshoot the mark by far and also do a disservice to global human rights protection.

The mechanical and plant engineering industry in Europe is already committed to human rights and environmental protection in supply chains. We support the goals of the European Union to reinforce social and ecological standards in business relationships. However, the requirements go far too far, especially for medium-sized companies, and will not improve human rights protection in the world. Medium-sized companies cannot control all stages of their supply chains in distant countries because they do not receive the necessary information due to their lack of market power. They certainly cannot exert any influence on their customers.

The enormous bureaucratic effort involved is also too much for medium-sized, internationally networked companies, which are typical of the mechanical engineering sector. They will be forced to play it safe and withdraw from certain regions. They should therefore be excluded from the scope of application and the employee threshold should be aligned with the German Supply Chain Act.

In addition, European supply chain law should be limited to what companies can really control: their own business, their subsidiaries and their direct suppliers. A 'white list' of countries that we generally trust and an additional 'black list' of untrustworthy companies would at least create legal certainty and significantly reduce the effort involved."