Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

European policy on CSR   In October 2011 the European Commission published a new policy on corporate social responsibility . The Commission defines corporate social responsibility as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”. To fully meet their social responsibility, 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”.

What do citizens think of companies? Survey results   See the results of an EU and global survey on what citizens in different countries think about the impacts of business on society.

The aim is both to enhance positive impacts – for example through the innovation of new products and services that are beneficial to society and enterprises themselves – and to minimise and prevent negative impacts.The new policy was welcomed by EU Member States in the Competitiveness Council in December 2011.

An action agenda for the period 2011-2014:

The Commission's policy puts forward an agenda for action covering the period 2011-2014.  A table showing progress in implementation of this agenda is available here [61 KB] .

The agenda covers the following 8 areas:

• Enhancing the visibility of CSR and disseminating good practices: this includes the creation of a European award, and the establishment of sector-based platforms for enterprises and stakeholders to make commitments and jointly monitor progress.
• Improving and tracking levels of trust in business: the Commission will launch a public debate on the role and potential of enterprises, and organise surveys on citizen trust in business.
• Improving self- and co-regulation processes: the Commission proposes to develop a short protocol to guide the development of future self- and co-regulation initiatives.
• Enhancing market reward for CSR: this means leveraging EU policies in the fields of consumption, investment and public procurement in order to promote market reward for responsible business conduct.
• Improving company disclosure of social and environmental information: the new policy confirms the Commission’s intention to bring forward a new legislative proposal on this issue.
• Further integrating CSR into education, training and research: the Commission will provide further support for education and training in the field of CSR, and explore opportunities for funding more research.
• Emphasising the importance of national and sub-national CSR policies: the Commission invites EU Member States to present or update their own plans for the promotion of CSR by mid 2012.
• Better aligning European and global approaches to CSR:
  • the Commission highlights the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises,
  • the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact,
  • the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,
  • the ILO Tri-partite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy,
  • the ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility.