The Official Journal of the European Union publishes the corporate sustainability due diligence directive
After it has come into force, companies will have to start the steps needed to ensure fulfillment of the directive’s obligations within the time periods imposed by the European Union. To assist with this task, we share below a chart with the key dates when the obligations for companies will come into force in the member states.
After a tortuous legislative process lasting more than two years, the corporate sustainability due diligence directive was finally published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) on July 5, 2024. Garrigues has been reporting on the process: in April and May 2024, we covered final approval of this important European directive by the European Parliament (see here) and the Council (see here).
The directive will come into force twenty days after its publication in the OJ and it gives the member states a two-year period running from its entry into force (i.e., ending on July 26, 2026) in which to transpose it into their national laws.
As a result of its publication in the OJ we now have the definite dates when the directive’s obligations will come into force in the member states for in-scope companies, as summarized below:
As we have been reporting, this directive will impose on the companies described above the obligation to identify, prevent, mitigate, eliminate and repair adverse human rights and environmental impacts, liability for breaching those obligations, together with the requirement to adopt and put into effect a climate change transition plan.
In addition to Spain’s obligation to transpose the directive into national law within the two-year period mentioned, the European Commission will have to fulfill the mandates that the directive has imposed on it, relating, among other matters, to the publication of general guidelines and for specific sectors or specific adverse effects; as well as to clarifying, in delegated acts, the information that companies will have to publish in their annual statement.
Garrigues has organized roundtables with experts to discuss this subject. Last December, for example, in one of our Garrigues Sustainable dialogs, we underlined the challenge that all this will mean for organizations; and in the dialog held last May, we looked at the key points of the new directive following its approval by the EU Council.
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