AssessmentsOct 22, 2025 | 17:00 GMT
The Geopolitics of Trade: EU Steps Back From Ambitious Environmental Policies
Ongoing revisions to the European Union's supply-chain due diligence framework reflect a softening of ambitious sustainability goals as competitiveness, economic security and trade diversification take precedence, easing near-term compliance burdens for businesses but maintaining binding ESG obligations, regulatory fragmentation and long-term uncertainty for large companies and high-impact sectors such as energy, agriculture and manufacturing. The European Union is weakening its most ambitious supply-chain sustainability rules -- the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) -- by delaying implementation, easing compliance and narrowing obligations. As part of the ''Omnibus'' simplification package presented in February, Brussels proposed giving companies more time and flexibility and softening due diligence, disclosure and liability requirements for all three initiatives. In April, the European Union also adopted the ''Stop-the-Clock'' Directive, pausing transposition and first-phase application of both CSDDD and CSRD to prevent immediate compliance deadlines from
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