European Commission and CSR
In October 2011 the European Commission published a new policy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
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”.
The Commission’s policy put forward an agenda for action covering the period 2011-2014.
This Commission agenda for action covers, amongst others, enhancing the visibility of CSR and disseminating good practices. This includes the establishment of sector-based platforms for enterprises and stakeholders to make commitments and jointly monitor progress.
The Commission thus published in 2012 a call for proposals for projects developing sector-based multi-stakholders platforms on CSR. The project DESIGN-MTS was one of few project proposals that the European Commission supported and decided to co-fund for 18 months (from July 2013 to December 2014).
Documents:
EC’s new Communication on CSR (October 2011)
EC’s CSR actions timeline (action agenda 2011-2014)
Machine Tools Sector (MTS) and CSR
CECIMO’s Blue Competence Initiative
Other relevant documents and links
ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on CSR
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
The 10 principles of the UN Global Compact
ILO Tri-partite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy
OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises