European officials weigh how they can respond to American efforts to thwart local dei programs, because the two regions are getting closer than ever to collide with the anti-discrimination policy.
American embassies throughout Europe have spent defects in recent weeks to companies and public offices that do business with the American government, and demand that they are not to have diversity, fairness and inclusion programs that violate American legislation now that Donald Trump is in the White House.
The European Commission is aware of the issue and is currently working together with the Member States of the European Union to find out the impact of the American campaign and how to respond best, a spokesperson told Bloomberg's executive power. Dei issues such as gender equality are anchored in European law.
State Secretary Marco Rubio strives to ensure that Trump's executive order that prohibits dei initiatives is carried out by the department and the American embassies, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs per e -mail.
The American campaign has left Europeans in astonishment, with politicians and business heads who are on the development.
Jan Valeskog, vice -mayor for the planning for the city Stockholm, said that the staff was 'shocked' when the department received a letter at the beginning of May. In the correspondence, the American embassy in Sweden gave the city Stockholm 10 days to confirm that it would meet the assignment to drop dei, he said.
“Of course we won't do that,” Valeskog said in an interview. “For us it is very important to work with diversity, equality and inclusion,” he said, noticed that the required legally binding in Sweden.
The EU has already been attacked by the US on ESG regulations that apply to international companies that want to do business in the region. The American commercial secretary Howard Lutnick has said that he is willing to use a series of levers, including 'Handelsstools', as retribution against such rules.
The American Chamber of Commerce has also appealed to the Trump administration for support in its fight against the Due Diligence Directive of European business sustainability. CSDDD requires that companies in Europe want to do business to have credible climate transition plans and to ensure that their value chains are free of human rights violations. Last month, the EU legislators delayed the implementation of a year in the midst of renewed debate.
The gap over dei threatens to aggravate transatlantic tensions.
It is not “just a kind of fork on the road between the US and Europe,” said Raoul Parekh, a labor lawyer who leads international practice in the London office of Littler Mendelson PC. But more like the two areas of law “ride in fully opposite directions.”
One of Trump's first actions in his second chairmanship was the signing of an executive order that prohibits Dei from the federal government and its contractors, and the orders of agencies to start research into every organization that promotes the White House 'Illegale dei'. A study of May by Littler Mendelson from business leaders in the US showed that 55% expected to change their Dei programs as a result of the executive orders of Trump.
The atmosphere of hostility towards Dei and ESG has turned institutions upside down that have tried not only in the US, but worldwide, to defend diversity. In some cases, European companies with a large American presence now choose to weaken their dei work. One of the newest examples is German software giant S SE, who fills his global goal to drop women 40% of his jobs.
The change is one of the different by S “in the field of diversity and inclusion to display current legal developments to guarantee legal compliance, as well as a safe and inclusive working environment,” said Daniel Reinhardt, a spokesperson for the company, per e -mail.
In the US there are companies that leave or pack their dei policy, are International Business Machines Corp., Intel Corp., Accenture PLC, Walmart Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. And Amazon.com Inc., to name only a handful.
Critics of the American approach say that decades work to tackle discriminatory policy that prefer white men, running the risk of being wiped out. But instead of moving Trump's requirements, European supervisors continue with existing plans to prioritize gender and racial diversity and discrimination in the workplace.
“In the light of all attempts to challenge these values or the rule of law, we double our efforts in supporting the implementation of legislation that reinforces equality and inclusion,” said Carlien Scheele, director of the European Institute for Gender Equality, by e -mail.
In the UK, the government is considering demanding employers to develop plans to close the pay gap that now exists between most ethnic minority groups and white British. And it has set a deadline of 10 June to respond to the consultation, which also tackles the pay gap in which people with disabilities are confronted.
In the EU, companies are confronted with a Deadline of June 2026 to achieve the goals set by the EU's gender balance of the EU on the Guideline of the Business Councils, assumed to bring the representation of women to non-executive drivers at at least 40% in large companies. After that, companies must take action to reduce any wage gaps that are more than 5%, because the wage transparency directive is phased.
Europe's embrace of dei initiatives coincides with his efforts to tackle a decreasing staff. In a report from March, business European said that the increasing participation of women – especially in science, technology and engineering – is crucial to strengthen the competitiveness of the block as the population gets older and shrinks.
Although the organization established in Brussels said that it is aware of the American letters received by members, it refused to comment.
Investors meanwhile take note.
During a presentation this month, Matt Christensen, worldwide head of Sustainable and Impact Investing at Allianz Global Investors, said that he was “surprised” to hear that companies – including in France, where he lives – had received letters from American embassies, and that the development led some to have adjusted their policy.
Christensen said that he is aware of the changes in S. as a shareholder, “will be a discussion that we will have,” he said.
With the help of Isolde Macdonogh and Nick Wadhams.
This article was generated from an automated feed from the news agency without changes in text.
