At the Choose France summit, Emmanuel Macron calls for the abolition of the European directive on the duty of care

On Monday, May 19, President Emmanuel Macron called for the pure and simple abolition of the European directive on the duty of care, just like the new German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, ten days ago.

"We fully agree with Chancellor Merz and other colleagues that we need to move much faster" on simplification, "and the CS3D [Duty of Care Directive] and some other regulations should not just be postponed for a year but sidelined," he said in a speech to participants at the Choose France summit.

Emmanuel Macron observed that Europe had increased "many constraints and regulations in many sectors, while opening its markets to companies" , notably Chinese, "practicing lower standards" , while at the same time European companies were subject to "the aggressive policy" put in place by Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The European Commission has "started to react [by postponing the directive from 2027 to 2028] but now everything depends on the speed and scale of our response," Emmanuel Macron said. "We must move quickly and strongly if we want to get back in the race," he said.

On May 9, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on the European Union to repeal the directive, which imposes environmental and human rights regulations on companies throughout their production chain, also in the name of fighting bureaucracy. Merz said simply postponing the directive was "not a sustainable solution. Ultimately, the solution must be to repeal it," he said.

The two leaders thus agree with the employers' associations of both countries, who had been calling for this abolition rather than a simple postponement.

NGOs, on the other hand, denounce the unravelling of environmental measures adopted during the Commission's previous mandate.