Last month, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement[1] on the proposal for a Regulation banning products made using forced labor or circulating on the EU market.
Before mentioning the main points of the agreement, it is worth putting the proposed Regulation into context.
This Regulation comes as a result of the commitment made by the United Nations to eradicate forced labor by 2030. Furthermore, within the Union’s own actions, it is also worth mentioning the Communication on decent work around the world with the Commission’s proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, the analysis of which we refer to the article written by our colleague Nuno Abranches Pinto.
The impacts of forced labor are covered by the proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, as set out in Annex I of the proposal.
The main objective of this proposal is therefore to hinder the free movement of goods and, by means of a Regulation, to eliminate distortions of competition in the internal market resulting from any divergence between national laws, regulations or administrative provisions concerning the placing and making available on the Union market of products manufactured using forced labor.
Although a more in-depth analysis of this proposal will be made once it enters into force, we think it is extremely important to transcribe what is meant by forced labor, according to Article 2, which the Commission has referred to the definition created by the ILO:
a) “Forced labor” shall be deemed to be that which complies with the definition in Article 2 of the International Labour Organization’s Forced Labor Convention, 1930 (No. 29), including forced child labor;
b) “Forced labor imposed by state authorities”, as described in Article 1 of the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, 1957 (No. 105).
What are the main points to take away from this agreement, which, in a very brief way, includes some of the main changes brought about by the Regulation?
i) Scope: The products covered by this Regulation will be all those manufactured within the Union, whether for the purposes of import or export, as well as imported goods, not broken down by type of industry, as long as it is verified that they have been produced by forced labor.
ii) Verification: With regard to investigating and deciding on the provision of forced labor, the Commission will investigate all cases that occur outside the territory of the Union, while the Member States will be in charge of situations that occur within the EU.
iii) Enforcement: The Commission will prepare tools to support economic operators and competent national authorities in the application and implementation of the regulation.
In the meantime, we will keep a close eye on developments in this piece of legislation in the hope that it will bring a new era of rights and duties to the Union, which are essential and crucial for the critical situations we are going through (and which we don’t seem to want to put a stop to).
Filipa Lopes Galvão and Maria Beatriz Silva @ DCM | Littler
[1] The Council sometimes uses a “general approach” to give Parliament an idea of its position on the legislative proposal presented by the Commission. This political agreement is generally used to speed up the legislative process and make it easier for Parliament and the Council to reach an agreement at first reading. (https://www.consilium.europa.eu/pt/council-eu/decision-making/ordinary-legislative-procedure/)
