On 29 April 2020, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, announced that the European Commission will develop legislation that would require companies to carry out due diligence to identify, account and mitigate for adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their supply chains.
The Commissioner confirmed that a legislative initiative would be introduced by 2021. Details of the exact legal mechanism will follow, but according to the Commissioner, any legislation would be “inter-sectorial, mandatory and of course with a lot of possible sanctions”.
