“It’s like giving a loaded gun to a child,” Sieper said. “Of course, TotalEnergies had no intention for stuff like that to happen, but if you have all the information, know all the local actors, their history with human rights abuses, and still conduct your business, you are responsible … it’s a perfect example of a corporate social responsibility failure,” he told POLITICO in a phone call.
Sieper said his party will push for better implementation of the due diligence directive, EU rules that compel companies to safeguard the environment and human rights in their supply chains, as there are “thousands of companies producing similar situations right now.”
Marie Toussaint, vice president of the Greens/EFA Group, told POLITICO in a statement that Total’s strategy aiming at “maximising profit to the detriment of the people must be stopped.”
“This is a clear violation of our values, French values and European values, that a company keeps on earning money by making pacts with dictators, killing the climate and destroying people’s lives,” Toussaint, who has proposed the public authorities take over Europe’s largest oil companies, said.
French MEP Manon Aubry said she was shocked by the events described in the article, and that the EU has to ensure a swift implementation of the due diligence legislation to “stop corporate human rights abuses.”
“Big global companies must be held accountable for their crimes,” she told POLITICO in a statement.
