Building on previous statements, the UN Global Compact reiterates its support for advancing business respect for human rights through mandatory due diligence requirements. Currently, the European Union is making efforts to streamline and simplify its corporate sustainability rules through the proposed EU omnibus regulation. By consolidating the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and the EU Taxonomy, the EU aims to reduce compliance burdens while addressing concerns over Europe’s economic competitiveness and regulatory complexity. 

As the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, the UN Global Compact encourages upholding current corporate sustainability laws. This includes promoting and supporting corporate environmental and social due diligence and accountability, anchored and aligned with international standards.

In the face of environmental, societal and economic challenges in Europe and globally, the EU has made ambitious commitments to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and improve living conditions across the continent. Central to this strategy is the European Green Deal, which seeks to harmonize environmental, social and economic priorities. While the debate on streamlining and simplification continues, it is crucial to ensure that these efforts translate into real, measurable impacts across all sectors. This requires ensuring transparency and accountability and remaining true to the spirit of the Green Deal and the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The UN Global Compact emphasizes the importance of assessing and managing salient impacts - prioritizing the most severe and significant effects a company's operations may have on people and the planet. This approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of corporate impacts and systemic risks, enabling businesses to take proactive and meaningful action to drive positive change. 

By integrating comprehensive human rights due diligence, businesses align with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which provide international frameworks for the duties of states and the responsibilities of business in preventing and addressing adverse human rights impacts. This approach fully aligns with the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, which encompass human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. These alignments ensure that businesses are meeting international standards and actively contributing to the global effort to foster a more just, prosperous and sustainable world.

Legal certainty is a fundamental pillar to ensure that organizations understand their obligations and can act with predictability and confidence over time. Many companies are already working on implementing various reporting and human rights and environmental due diligence requirements, not only as a response to emerging regulations but as a strategy to strengthen their market competitiveness. While this requires internal effort, it also represents a pathway for long-term value creation. The UN Global Compact encourages companies to integrate a robust sustainability strategy and embed the Ten Principles in their mission and purpose. This approach ensures that reporting goes beyond mere compliance, and becomes a genuine priority driven by strategy, transparency, and accountability. 

Transparency and participation in regulatory processes are essential to ensuring robust and effective regulations. Multi-stakeholder dialogue and engagement —including businesses, civil society, trade unions, and other key actors—help identify impacts and strengthen the effective enforcement of regulations. 

Aligned with the ambition of the UN Global Compact to accelerate and scale the collective impact of businesses by upholding the Ten Principles and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, we support a mandatory due diligence framework that aligns with international standards. We believe that, when adapted to reality, it serves as an essential tool to ensure that companies operating in Europe lead the transition towards a sustainable and resilient economic model. The key lies in supporting its implementation with adequate resources and fostering effective stakeholder collaboration. To this end, the UN Global Compact is ready to support companies on their due diligence journey.

About the UN Global Compact



The ambition of the UN Global Compact is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the SDGs through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 20,000 participating companies, 5 Regional Hubs, 63 Country Networks covering 80 countries and 13 Country Managers establishing Networks in 18 other countries, the UN Global Compact is the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world.

Find the original statement on the UN Global Compact website.