Parliament adopts resolution on corporate social responsibility

In May 2003, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on corporate social responsibility, in response to the European Commission’s 2002 Communication on this issue. Parliament calls on the Commission, the Council of Ministers, Member States, companies and other involved parties to work to promote corporate social responsibility.

There has been increasing EU activity in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) over the past few years. The most recent developments include a July 2002 European Commission Communication (COM (2003) 347) entitled Corporate Social Responsibility: A business contribution to sustainable development, in which it outlines a strategy on CSR (EU0207205F). One of the main results of this initiative was the launch of a new European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility ([CSR EMS Forum](http://forum.europa.eu.int/irc/empl/csr_eu_multi_stakeholder_forum/info/data/en/csr ems forum.htm)) in October 2002 (EU0211205F).

On 13 May 2003, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution in response to the Commission’s 2002 Communication. It makes reference to a number of other existing texts in this area, including International Labour Organisation (ILO) international labour standards (including Conventions and Recommendations) and instruments drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including its guidelines for multinational enterprises (EU0009270F). The EP also welcomes in particular the Commission’s recent activities in this field.

However, the resolution makes a number of suggestions for improving the current process. It states that, in relation to CSR, there should be more active promotion of women’s business development, workforce diversity and work-life balance. This should include measures to increase the number of women in business, to ensure better involvement of women in dialogue and to establish more detailed statistics on the representativeness of social partner advisory structures.

The EP also makes mention of small and medium-sized enterprises, noting that, for these types of company, the importance of a local community perspective must also be taken into account, in addition to the traditional division of CSR issues into social, environmental and economic concerns.

Parliament calls on the Commission to draw up proposals that will allow companies access to the information and training they need to draw up sustainability records. It also asks the Commission to keep a register of companies that have been convicted of corruption by an EU court, which should not, in the EP’s view, be allowed to receive EU contracts or orders for three years.

The resolution asks the Commission to consider a proposal on 'social labelling' and to develop and extend EU criteria for 'eco-labels'. It calls on Member States to introduce sanctions to be applied in the event of environmental claims by companies that are either 'false, misleading, meaningless or non-verifiable'.

The EP also suggests that there should be greater efforts to improve the understanding of CSR principles and practices among candidate countries for EU membership, and proposes that a member from each candidate country should be invited to attend the November 2003 meeting of the CSR EMS Forum as an observer. It also states that this meeting should include the EP as an actor rather than as an observer.