EU ESG Heartland Institute - New European Union ESG Law Will Eliminate Economic Freedom, Individual Liberty, and U.S. Sovereignty https://heartland.org/publications/ne...
Fostering sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour for a just transition towards a sustainable economy.”
The title and sub-title should be making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
The EU and the UN/WEF are joined at the hip – for example, the International Vaccine ID cards (developed by the EU and gifted to the WHO), 2030 and 2050 climate change “agenda” and whatever their latest version of human rights are (for LBGTQ+, DEI etc) and, last but not last, CENSORSHIP OF FREE SPEECH, IDEAS AND PROGRESS.
So, when did this happen? It’s been coming down the pipe for a while.
From Brave: “… the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was passed into law by the European Parliament on April 24, 2024. Additionally, the Council of the European Union approved the CSDDD on May 24, 2024. Therefore, the “Corporate sustainability due diligence” was formally passed into law in June 2024, as the last step in the legislative process was completed.”
“On 25 July 2024, the Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (Directive 2024/1760) entered into force. The aim of this Directive is to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour in companies’ operations and across their global value chains. The new rules will ensure that companies in scope identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts of their actions inside and outside Europe.”
Note the term “global value chains”. This means from raw material (metal ore, crops or fossil fuel source etc) all the way through refining and other processing steps that constitute “work in progress” through to the finished product – FROM ALL SOURCES ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
Think about the metal in coins used in the EU (copper mined by minor miners in South America!), to components sourced globally in US fighter jets and weapons used in the military, to the components used in cars, to petroleum products used in make-up or the parts of aluminium smelters to oil used in plastic bottles – now extend that to every manufacturer operating in the EU and exporting goods to the EU.
Think of all the components of goods that are produced in different parts of the world and are then sold under one, final, brand name to an EU consumer – such as Ford or Apple or Nvidia or Microsoft programmers based in India/
All must comply with this directive.
If not, then the climate freaks will be set upon you, and you may get fired 5% of global sales FOR EACH OFFENCE!
The EU can do what it likes – inside the EU – but this Directive (countries must comply with Directives by drafting national laws) covers GLOBAL operations for every major company selling goods (and services) into the EU.
10. Heterocyclic compounds with nitrogen heteroatoms only: 1.6% ($48 billion)
Now, Norway and the US might have replaced Russia as a source of petroleum imports. These numbers do not reflect the domicile of the imports – just where they are badged – like Liberian ships. For example, on the other side of the ledger, “Human blood; animal blood for therapeutic or diagnostic uses: 4.42% ($110 billion)” is an export sourced from Ireland – I doubt that Ireland has that much blood and probably represents the “booking” of trade in blood by US big pharma, using Ireland as a shelf company site, under a flag of convenience, for tax purposes, I the same way that Pfizer pays no tax by using a back-street shelf company in cities in the Netherlands.
Just as a guide, here are the imports ad exports as “booked” in 2021.
Imports and exports total around 1.5 trillion euros a side with around a deficit of 250 billion dollars from countries not listed.
What springs off the page immediately is the imports of goods from China. It is bad enough for the US, with Nike products, for example, being made with forced labour. How are and Samsung and Apple going to explain the source of the electronics in their cell phones and laptops, etc. How is China going to report how it makes its products with all that coal as an energy source in its manufacturing or Japan going to explain its non-DEI policies – since DEI means diversity and inclusion of people from all over the world, not just Japan!
“This Directive establishes a corporate due diligence duty.
The core elements of this duty are identifying and addressing potential and actual adverse human rights and environmental impacts in the company’s own operations, their subsidiaries and, where related to their value chain(s), those of their business partners. In addition, the Directive sets out an obligation for large companies to adopt and put into effect, through best efforts, a transition plan for climate change mitigation aligned with the 2050 climate neutrality objective of the Paris Agreement as well as intermediate targets under the European Climate Law.”
Ugh! Put in place “a transition plan for climate change mitigation” by 2050 with other 2030 targets.
Straightaway I hope you recall all the displaced Dutch farmers! Anyone supplying foodstuffs to the EU are now subject to the same nonsensical laws that punish food producers in the EU (who are being forced off the land to make way for wind turbines and solar panels) and will be fined 5% of global trade PER OFFENCE.
Here’s who it applies to:
“Large non–EU companies:
+/- 900 companies - > EUR 450 million turnover (net) in EU.
The Directive contains provisions to facilitate compliance and limit the burden on companies, both in scope and in the value chain.”
The EU just loves bureaucracy (and forcing higher taxes on member countries). As you know, I view taxation as theft – and think that Article 10 of the US constitution should have “welfare” removed with taxes only being used for debt servicing and defence!
“At European level, the Commission will set up a European Network of Supervisory Authorities that will bring together representatives of the national bodies to ensure a coordinated approach.”
Just to confuse the issue, countries in the EU have a year or so to implement the Directive, and three years after that to apply the Directive fully.
“Member States have to transpose the Directive into national law and communicate the relevant texts to the Commission by 26 July 2026. One year later, the rules will start to apply to the first group of companies, following a staggered approach (with full application on 26 July 2029).”
The EU has an obsession with “value chains”. It imposed Value Added Tax (VAT) that is charged on each step of a product or service value chain. Each step “attracts” a charge of around 20-25% of the value. Company A makes a part, charges 25% VAT when it sells to Company B, who adds value and charges 25% to Company C on the new value and so on and so forth, to the final VAT charged by the last seller to a consumer. This tax is horribly regressive – the significance of the impact worsens the pourer the final buyer is – and there was no offset in income or other taxes – it was a straight tax hike – especially, relatively, on the poor, who were otherwise receiving tax relief on income in a “progressive” manner. Th poor were caught and made to suffer.
The EU Commission, EU Parliament and EU Council of Leaders with one President for ach – has a blind spot. It assumes that everyone is a middle to upper income earner, rather than the reality of at last half the region being unable to afford the basics of life, let alone the basics of life for the middle to upper income households. It does not look after its poor; it punishes them with puerile and pointless bureaucratic measures.
By that time the EU will be almost entirely bereft of any economy at all!
There is an existing set of rules in the EU that limit fiscal deficits to 3% of GDP and public debt to 60% of GDP.
Here’s the aggregate status of those “rules”: European Union 81.7% (as of Mar 2024). Some countries are in compliance (there cheers for Denmark, Kosovo and other Eastern European countries!) but there are those (like France, Italy, Spain and Portugal) that have a lot of power in the EU, who are hopelessly indebted, and, in the normal course of events, would be fined and disallowed their voting rights in any EU supervisory body – using the same principles as are contained in the compliance legislation!
Onwards!!!
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It's a mad, bad World with the EU attempting to become the proto-global one World GOV.
Meantime, the signs of the times are escalating toward a crescendissimo, an implosion of hubris the likes of which the World has never witnessed.