Efforts are under way to keep alive EU legislation that would see companies check on human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains.

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was knocked off course last month, when it emerged that Germany would vote against it in what would have been a final vote in the European Council.

It is reported that Belgium has proposed “doubling” the threshold at which the new rules apply: this would now mean companies with 1,000 employees and €300m in turnover.

Reports also suggest the proposals include a longer implementation period—possibly as long as three years for the largest EU companies.

An additional point of opposition has been the CSDDD’s inclusion of “civil liability” for companies who fail to comply. A number of reports suggest this has been “softened”, though the details remain unclear.

Looking to France and Italy

News service Euractive reports that there will be a new vote on the CSDDD on Friday this week, with observers keenly watching France and Italy to see if they will back revised laws.

There was an outpouring of support for the CSDDD when the vote was delayed, including statements from UN bodies such as UNICEF and the UN Development Programme.

Trade union groups declared it was “unacceptable” for Germany to veto the legislation “after years of negotiations”.

This week, Friends of the Earth corporate accountability campaigner Alban Grosdidier , blogged: “the incoherent political mess behind the delay has the fingerprints all over it of business lobbyists who are not afraid to hijack the EU democratic agenda for their own greed”.

Grosdidier comments that incidents like the Rana Plaza factory collapse disaster (pictured) in Bangladesh show that European supply chains come with a “death toll”.

“All eyes are on the European Council now, and the member states which are part of it. This is not a game—this is the chance to stop the European supply chain death toll.”

The CSDDD will likely be passed in a new form. But a revised version will also cause another row.