After more than one and half years of silence the European Commission has finally published a new policy paper on corporate social responsibility. This paper is supposed to be the commission’s response to the outcomes of the European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility that ended in 2004. The result is dramatic and neglects developments in international debate over the past ten years.

A large number of varied stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations, trade unions and businesses, have spent much time and resources on the multi-stakeholder forum over almost two years. The aim was to come to a common understanding among stakeholders and to lay the groundwork for a European framework for corporate social responsibility.

The NGOs that entered into the process did so in light of the urgent need to increase positive and reduce negative impacts of business on society and the environment, and in recognition of the important role the EU could play to this effect. A number of substantive recommendations came out of the forum, which would, if implemented by the relevant actors, have a significant impact. For that to happen, however, NGOs believed that regulatory measures were needed to complement the many voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives that only work for the well-intentioned.

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