A Parliament report on the Commission's Communication on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), adopted on 9 March 2007, is critical of the Commission's approach of letting companies decide how to incorporate social and environmental concerns into business practices.
The report was authored by Labour MEP Richard Howitt following the March 2006 publication of the Commission's CSR CommunicationPdf external . The Communication led to a break-up of the EU Multi-Stakeholder Forum on CSRexternal , when all NGOs stepped out of the Forum in protest at the setting-up by the Commission of a different body, the European Alliance on CSRexternal , of which NGOs are no longer a part.
The Forum split was the culminating point of a long-standing conflict, in which companies claimed the right to define the CSR standards that they should apply, whereas NGOs said that only a common set of standards to be worked out between all stakeholders, and possibly enforced through regulation, would bring satisfactory results. NGOs have since grouped up in the European Coalition for Corporate Justiceexternal .
See full Press Release.
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