The Contested Soul of Corporate Accountability: Navigating the CSDDD’s Ambition and Its Political Unravelling

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), adopted in July 2024, marked a watershed moment, attempting to transition from voluntary corporate social responsibility to mandatory corporate accountability in the EU. However, this ambitious project was politically fragile and is now being systematically dismantled by a deregulatory counter-movement. Legislative proposals and subsequent political compromises have targeted the CSDDD's core enforcement mechanisms, critically removing its harmonised civil liability regime. This political retreat, culminating in an October 2025 JURI committee vote, effectively neutralises the directive's power to provide remedial justice, reducing it to a largely symbolic gesture and leaving the promise of accountability for corporate abuse unfulfilled.