European Commission launches new strategy on CSR
October 28, 2011

After years of silence, the European Commission finally published its new strategy on corporate social responsibility (CSR), which aims to create conditions favourable to sustainable growth and employment generation in the medium and long term.

Through CSR, enterprises can significantly contribute to the European Union’s treaty objectives of sustainable development and a highly competitive social market economy. CSR underpins the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, including the 75% employment target.

The European Commission has previously defined CSR as “a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis”. The European Commission now puts forward a new, simpler definition of CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”.

In response to the financial crisis, the Commission is making a number of regulatory proposals to ensure a more responsible and transparent financial system. The Commission intends to consider a requirement on all investment funds and financial institutions to inform all their clients (citizens, enterprises, public authorities etc.) about any ethical or responsible investment criteria they apply or any standards and codes to which they adhere.

The new policy also puts forward an agenda for action covering 8 areas:

1. Enhancing the visibility of CSR and disseminating good practices
2. Improving and tracking levels of trust in business
3. Improving self- and co-regulation processes
4. Enhancing market reward for CSR
5. Improving company disclosure of social and environmental information
6. Further integrating CSR into education, training and research
7. Emphasising the importance of national and sub-national CSR policies
8. Better aligning European and global approaches to CSR

More info: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=5511
and http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/_getdocument.cfm?doc_id=7010