Regulations in their current form will become a bureaucracy monster - Germany's abstention from the Supply Chain Act is an important signal
"Uniform regulation across the EU is fundamentally in the interests of the economy, as it can ensure uniform standards across the EU internal market and comparable competitive conditions," states Christoph Neumayer, IV Secretary General, in light of the discussion on the plans for the Supply Chain Act. In recent years, however, the trend has increasingly been towards overregulation and highly complex approval procedures, which are increasingly slowing Europe down, especially in forward-looking sectors. This also currently applies to the discussion surrounding the Supply Chain Act: "Well meant is not well done. The design of the new EU directive on the Supply Chain Act imposes unfulfillable information and verification burdens on entrepreneurs in Austria and Europe and threatens to become a massive bureaucracy monster in its current form," says Neumayer, adding: "We are not questioning the objective, but in its current form it simply cannot be implemented in everyday business life." It is also particularly annoying that companies are once again being asked to take on tasks that are those of governments or international organizations.
The current draft is simply not feasible and achievable for small and medium-sized Austrian businesses.
The voting process on the final text has not yet been completed. However, Germany has now given the first signals that it will abstain from the vote next week: "This is a first positive step at EU level. In view of this, the Austrian exporting economy and industry also expects similar signals from Austrian decision-makers," Neumayer demands. This is because the politicians are shifting their responsibilities onto entrepreneurs by shaping the current proposal - they are now supposed to solve what governments have failed to achieve for years. "This is simply not feasible for many companies, especially in the SME sector," emphasizes Neumayer. It is not acceptable for companies to be held liable for shortcomings in their supply chains if they have not directly caused them or if they have taken appropriate due diligence measures to prevent them.