EPP teams up with far-right against due diligence law
13 November 2025
"Christian Democrats want to exempt companies from their responsibility for labor rights and climate. What the right flank of this parliament is doing today is downright bad for workers. While textile workers are being exploited and our climate is at stake, the EPP is giving polluting companies carte blanche."
Brussels, 13 November 2025 – Christian Democrats and the far-right have just voted in an unprecedented far-reaching collaboration for a significant weakening of the due diligence law. According to the Greens, the EPP refused any compromise and chose to work with the far-right Patriots and ECR groups instead of pro-European forces. MEP Sara Matthieu warns: "Christian Democrats want to exempt companies from their responsibility for labor rights and climate. What the right flank of this parliament is doing today is downright bad for workers. While textile workers are being exploited and our climate is at stake, the EPP is giving polluting companies carte blanche."
Right refuses all compromise
The Greens voted against this weakening of the due diligence law. After the vote on 22 October, Greens, Social Democrats and Liberals repeatedly reached out to the EPP. Matthieu: "We showed ourselves willing to compromise time and again, but the EPP prefers deregulation with the far-right for the benefit of big capital and at the expense of workers worldwide."
The EPP demanded the complete scrapping of climate transition plans for companies and wanted 9 out of 10 companies to no longer have to report on their climate efforts.
"While major companies like Aldi, Unilever and Ikea themselves are asking for clear rules, the EPP is sabotaging any form of legal certainty," says Matthieu. "By conspiring with the far-right, the EPP is breaking with its historical legacy of building Europe with pro-European forces."
What is at stake?
The due diligence law requires companies to respect human rights, labor rights and environmental standards throughout their entire production chain. Anyone who wants access to our European market must abide by the rules – including outside Europe.
By weakening this law, textile workers in Bangladesh who make our clothes cannot take legal action in cases of serious violations. Companies that allow forced labor or severe environmental pollution in their supply chains remain beyond reach. "We have apparently learned nothing from the Rana Plaza garment factory disaster, which killed more than a thousand people," says Matthieu.
Lowest-paid workers pay the price
"What the right is doing here is downright bad for the lowest-paid workers and the most vulnerable," warns Matthieu. "This opens the door to exploitation through forced labor and to textile factories of Shein and Temu where workers have to toil for 15 hours. Moreover: how are our European manufacturers supposed to compete with that? As a consumer, you want assurance that what you buy is not made through abusive conditions or environmental pollution. As a worker, you want companies to follow the rules, here and elsewhere. But the EPP is fully choosing the side of the lobby – companies that want to evade their responsibility.
"Workers' organizations and trade unions are also warning of the consequences. Without a strong due diligence law, protection disappears for millions of workers worldwide who work in European production chains.
Greens continue the fight
"What the EPP is doing today is not simplification – it is pure deregulation. The Greens will continue to advocate for a strengthened law that guarantees decent working conditions and a livable planet," concludes Matthieu.
