Brussels, 12/07/2004
The European Multi Stakeholder Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) took place on 29 June, with the ETUC as one of the participants. The Forum was set up as part of the European Commission's strategy for promoting Corporate Social Responsibility, outlined in its Communication of 2 July 2002, and for encouraging dialogue between employers, trade unions, civil society and other partners. The ETUC is pleased to see some progress, but believes more work remains to be done.
The ETUC has taken account of the work the Multi Stakeholder Forum has carried out and is aware of advances in a number of areas, especially relating to the participation of trade unions, the role of collective bargaining, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the relationship between social dialogue and CSR.
Nevertheless, CSR remains a voluntary initiative, and for this reason the ETUC stresses the crucial importance of laying down guidelines at European level. At the same time, some questions remain to be clarified, and in this context the ETUC is calling for:
• A commitment from companies to draw up an annual report outlining the activities they have carried out in terms of their social and environmental impact;
• Standards for business governance, covering certification, transparency and tracability throughout the chain of production;
• The establishment of codes of conduct within the framework of monitoring systems laid down by the European Commission, in consultation with trade unions and NGOs;
• The development of instruments based on clear criteria for measuring and assessing CSR activities.
The ETUC calls on the Commission and on other stakeholders to incorporate these elements into the ongoing CSR process.
Fact sheet CSR
