The response to the approval of the Permanent Representatives – in other words the ambassadors - of the 27 EU member states to the EU Supply Chain Act could hardly be more different. Some are mocking the fact that FDP ministers Christian Lindner and Marco Buschmann have „failed magnificently“ with their „sabotage“ of the EU directive. Others praise the fact that Lindner and Buschmann's reservations ultimately ensured that threshold values were raised and the requirements for „high-risk sectors“ were removed or weakened – entirely in the interests of the economy.

In fact, either way you look at it, you can see who will end up as the winner or loser in the „thriller“ of the EU Supply Chain Act. But that is basically irrelevant. And reveals a strange understanding of European legislation.

In any case, the idea that it was only the FDP's reservations that opened the eyes of many other EU partners to the fact that the EU Supply Chain Act contains unreasonable burdens, competitive disadvantages and risks for Europe's economy is naïve. And again, the idea that the Belgian EU Council Presidency then miraculously managed to dispel all these concerns is just as unrealistic.

It is true that there were reservations about the EU directive right from the start – and there still are. The Swedes, Czechs and Austrians still have reservations about one or other of the regulations, as do the Bulgarians, Lithuanians, Slovaks and Estonians. Nevertheless, the Belgian Council Presidency has managed to negotiate a compromise that has achieved a qualified majority. A qualified majority means 15 out of 27 Member States representing at least 65% of the EU population.

The Belgians – and this is no coincidence, as the Belgians have been regarded as particularly good mediators in the EU for years due to their own fragmentation into Flemish and Walloons – have done exactly what an EU Council Presidency must do. They have won the vote of the Italian government, who were relatively indifferent to the EU supply chain law, by bringing relief to the EU packaging regulation, which is much more important for Rome. They also made it easier for many EU states that were critical towards the EU Supply Chain Act to approve it by excluding smaller companies from its application and postponing deadlines.

The result is that, in the end, a law is passed that no longer directly offends any EU country, but instead responds to reservations. According to diplomats, even Germany could actually have agreed to the EU directive after all the final adjustments, as it was brought much closer to the existing German supply chain law. So the conclusion is: this is how Europe works. The EU Supply Chain Act is – after many twists and turns – ultimately proof that the EU can agree on controversial issues. The accusation made on Friday by industry lobbyists against the EU Council Presidency of having pushed through a law „at any price in the back room“, which nobody wanted, is therefore more an expression of their own frustration.