The new government wants to abolish the German supply of supply, so it says in the coalition agreement. But Chancellor Merz is obviously not enough.
There are two pairs of shoes, and yet they touch the same topic: the German supply chain obligations law and the European EU supply chain directive. Both obliges companies to review and document their supply chains on various guidelines such as human rights and environmental requirements.
For companies, this means enormous effort, many companies criticize, and therefore call for the abolition or weakening of the law and the directive.
Federal government wants to abolish German law
According to the coalition agreement, the new federal government would like to significantly reduce the bureaucracy for companies by the end of 2025 with an “immediate program for reducing bureaucracy”. A focus should be to abolish the delivery chain duty law and to replace it with a law on international corporate responsibility.
The obligation to report that was necessary according to the previous law should even be abolished immediately. If companies do not comply with the current diligence, sanctions should only be imposed on massive violations of human rights – until then a new law comes into force. The current supply chain duty law has been in effect for companies with at least 1,000 employees since January 1, 2024.
Tübingen mechanical engineer breathes up
For companies such as Paul Horn GmbH from Tübingen, this announcement is a long -demanded political step. The mechanical engineer produces precision tools for various industries such as the auto industry or medical technology. Managing Director Markus Horn has been a critic of the law since the beginning: “A so -called bureaucracy monster has been created here.” He thinks the basic idea of the law is good and desirable. But he also says: “The implementation was and is neither practical, proportionate nor effective and lets us fall in worldwide competition.”
Horn is convinced that the vast majority of companies in mechanical engineering think responsible and sustainably wherever it is possible. A loss of the law would therefore only be logical for the Tübingen entrepreneur and would save time and money. Both could be used for product development or market development. And that would mean a long -term strengthening of global competitiveness.
Horn gets support from the Baden-Württemberg Minister of Economic Affairs Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut. It also sees an unreasonable bureaucracy for companies in the supply chain obligations law and in the associated sustainability reporting. Such a regulatory system always has to think to an end, she says and in question that in this case it leads to a real improvement in practice.
EU supply chain directive continues to apply
What still applies to German companies according to a possible abolition of the national law is the EU-wide European supply chain directive (CSDDD). It only came into force in early summer 2024, Germany had abstained when the FDP was passed.
The EU countries must implement the directive by 2026. This will then be applied to more and more companies by 2029 – most recently for companies with more than 1,000 employees and over 450 million euros in net sales per year. “Conceptively, the CSDDD builds on the German supply of supply assets law,” said the Federal Environment Ministry in May 2024.
Merz also wants to tip the EU guideline – SPD is against it
For Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the abolition of the German law alone is not enough. During his inaugural visit to Brussels on Friday, he demanded that the EU to be left away from the current guideline, and thereby added one more than the decisions in the coalition agreement. “We will abolish the national law in Germany. I also expect the European Union to understand this step and really cancel this directive.” The answer from the EU Commission came directly: it was about a simplification, said a spokeswoman. “It’s not about abolishing them.”
The coalition partner SPD also comes headwind. The SPD European Member René Repasi gave a clear removal of the abolition of the EU directive. But one is open to changes. The SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil also insists on the fact that the coalition agreement only wanted to overturn the German law and was not talking about the EU directive. It is an open disagreement on European stage. The dispute over the supply chain directive should not be over for the coalitionaire.
New law must be easier
For such a simplification, Markus Horn from Tübingen from Paul Horn GmbH has the clear wish that, for example, only one level in the supply chain has to be documented – the directly adjacent or directly upstream stage.
In his opinion, there should also be a clear definition of the countries, from which suppliers would no longer have to be checked. For him, however, only the abolition of the German law is of great help, since it currently avoids the double structures that are currently valid.
