Roundtable recap: The Future of Sustainable Supply Chains

07.12.2025

The EU's Omnibus package pits competitiveness against corporate responsibility and human rights in global supply chains. In November, experts gathered in Brussels to discuss this issue.

Workers dry fish processing in Chittagong, the process involves removing water from fish through evaporation, such as by sun drying, smoking, or air drying. The dry fish It is exported to the Middle East and Europe. — © picture alliance / Sipa USA | Eyepix

The so-called Omnibus procedure could see a substantial rollback of sustainability and human rights requirements for multinational corporations. On 19 November 2025, the Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt (Foundation for Labour and the Environment of the IGBCE) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung therefore hosted the expert roundtable “The Future of Sustainable Supply Chains: Competitiveness without the Erosion of Labour Standards” in Brussels.

The event brought together international trade unionists, activists and experts, who critically assessed the EU's reform proposals. The discussion also looked ahead to explore how improvements for workers in global supply chains can continue to be achieved.

Understanding sustainability and social responsibility as competitive advantages

The participants discussed the Omnibus package and the impact that the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and the CSDDD (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive) could have on the EU's economic competitiveness.

A central challenge is the prevailing narrative that binding corporate requirements on human rights and sustainability are harmful to competitiveness. This has not only led to a weakening of hard-fought standards in the CSDDD but also jeopardised the national implementation of the directive.

Since debates on corporate responsibility often focus solely on implementation costs, participants stressed the need to highlight the economic benefits more clearly. These include, for example, cost savings through improved risk management, reputational gains and, consequently, increased attractiveness to investors.

Advantages through quality

Studies have shown that the CSDDD ensures fair competition for companies that invest in good working conditions and sustainable business models, while encouraging others to follow suit. Ultimately, European companies will never be able to catch up with global competitors through undercutting costs; instead, they can gain competitive advantages through quality and high standards.

International trade union perspectives highlighted a further problem: terms such as ‘due diligence obligations’ often make it difficult for workers to understand what is at stake for them: preventing labour exploitation and enforcing accountability. At the same time, current political debates on competitiveness ignore which social groups benefit from deregulation and which are left behind, including European workers themselves.

Kaczmarczyk, Patrick

The competitiveness obsession

questioning promises of growth

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Shifting political alliances

Trade unions are deeply concerned that reform proposals in the European Parliament are driven by a majority ranging from conservative to far-right parties, illustrating how far some actors are prepared to go in using crises to dismantle fundamental labour standards and welfare state principles. International exchanges showed that Europe is increasingly becoming part of a global crisis of freedom of association.

Despite widespread concerns about further deregulation, there was nonetheless consensus that the CSDDD will, for the first time, introduce EU-wide, harmonised legal requirements for corporate responsibility. Transnational trade union and civil society networks are now called upon to jointly demand its consistent implementation and to advocate for expanding the circle of companies subject to these obligations.

How can we safeguard labour standards along global supply chains in the future?

The second part of the event examined how labour standards and human rights along supply chains can be safeguarded in the face of weakening binding norms and voluntary initiatives. Many achievements can still be built upon, as examples from trade unionists in Asia and Africa show.

They reported that suppliers of German and French corporations have, as a result of corporate responsibility laws, begun to engage in constructive dialogue with local trade unions and workers for the first time.

Creating this social dialogue along supply chains often requires pressure from European trade unions. These, in turn, need tangible case examples to mobilise workplace representatives to stand up for colleagues abroad. Since many companies' willingness to cooperate is in decline due to current political developments, urgent action is required.

Strengthening transnational solidarity

However, a case-based approach is not always feasible. While trade unions further down the supply chain often readily share knowledge about structural problems on the ground, naming concrete issues could put individual workers at risk. In addition to company-level engagement, trade unions can lobby for human rights protection in global framework agreements, as well as for participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives in specific sectors.

Strengthening the transnational solidarity networks is therefore crucial. Civil society actors can contribute by pursuing strategic approaches that generate greater leverage. In this way, misleading political narratives that seek to pit human rights against economic viability can also be challenged more effectively.

Contact

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung European Union & Global Dialogue | Brussels Office

Rue du Taciturne 38
1000 Brussels
Belgium

+32 22 34 62 90
brussels(at)fes.de