EU Commission: Renewed EU Strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility

1. November 1, 2011 EU Commission: Renewed EU Strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility Comments from Fiona Webster, Mercer, UK London

2. European Union: Renewed EU Strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility Published strategic outline 25 Oct 2011 (COM (2011) 681 final) with more detailed initiatives to follow over 2011-2014 -- anticipated mixture of regulatory and ‘soft’ law, although the scope of some initiatives is very unclear “Renewed” strategy because economic crisis has “damaged consumer confidence” and that public attention is on “social and ethical performance” of companies New definition of CSR: “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society … enterprises should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders”.

3. European Union: Renewed EU Strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility • Eight priorities: awareness-raising and best practice; support multi-stakeholder initiatives; cooperation between EU member states; consumer information and transparency; research; education; small and medium-sized companies; and international dimension of CSR • Cites challenges as: few companies operate to integrated social and environmental norms; corporate violations of human rights and failure to respect core employment standards; minority of EU member states have CSR laws. • Identifies importance of EU linkage, and consistency with, other intergovernmental CSR norms (especially, UN Global Compact, Environmental Management and Audit Scheme; increased number of companies engaging with labor unions on global employment standards; increased corporate focus on supply chains).

4. European Union: Renewed EU Strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility • CSR components: employment, diversity, OSH, environmental, (biodiversity, climate change, resource efficiency, life-cycle assessment and pollution prevention), human rights, bribery and corruption, and data privacy. • Identifies “cross-cutting” areas as (i) supply chain social and environmental responsibility and (ii) disclosure of non-financial information • Multistakeholder CSR forum, 2013 (stakeholder and company dialogue on employment skills, demography ageing population, gender, employee well-being; dissemination of responsible business conduct through the supply chain)

5. 2011 review of EU public procurement directives to aim at “better integration of social and environmental considerations into public procurement” 2012 EU award scheme for CSR partnerships between companies and stakeholders 2012: misleading marketing regarding environmental impacts, linking to existing EU law 2012: sectoral self-regulation on CSR (code of good practice) 2012: CSR training projects aimed at young people and educators Mid-2012: Member states to “develop or update” national priority actions, referencing global CSR principles, etc 2012: create a peer review for national CSR policies 2012: E/Commission to work with “enterprises and stakeholders” to develop human rights guidance for certain industrial sectors By mid-2012: E/Commission calls on business leaders (including from financial sector) to issue “open and accountable commitment” to promote CSR among a “much larger number of EU enterprises” with clear targets for 2015 and 2020 List of EU proposed initiatives and timing

6. By end 2012: publish EU priorities for implementing UN Guiding Principles (Ruggie) and “expects” all companies to respect human rights By end 2012: expects all EU member states to “develop” national plans for implementing UN Guiding Principles 2013 Multistakeholder CSR Forum on priority actins for CSR, referencing international CSR norms “Open debate” with citizens to discuss on the “role and potential” of business “Consider” requirement by investment funds, etc., to inform clients about ethical or responsible investment criteria applied Legislative proposal on transparency of company-provided social and environmental information EU to monitor corporate “commitments” to ISO 26000 By 2014: E/Commission “invites” companies to take account of at least one of: UN Global Compact, or OECD Guidelines, or ISO 26000 List of proposed initiatives and timing

7. By 2014: all “European-based” multinational companies to “make a commitment” to respect ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles on MNEs E/Commission to promote CSR through EU/third country (ie non EU member states) trade agreements and will “make proposals” E/Commission to “promote responsible business conduct” in future policy initiatives with non-EU countries By mid-2014: EU review meeting (stakeholders, member states and business) to “periodically monitor” List of proposed initiatives and timing

8. www.mercer.com