Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Leaked EU plan on CSR sparks anger


Environmental and other NGOs have accused the European commission of shutting non-business stakeholders out of a plan to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR). The commission is due to issue a communication on the subject on 22 March.

In a leaked draft of the paper seen by Environment Daily the commisson proposes to create a business-led European alliance for CSR to act as a "pole of exellence". This should be understood as a voluntary business contribution to achieving the goals of the Lisbon strategy, as recently relaunched to focus on boosting jobs and growth, it adds.

Regarding input from other stakeholders such as trade unions and environmental groups the paper states "a new political approach is necessary". Dialogue with all stakeholders is important, but companies must be recognised as "primary actors".

See full Article.