Focus CSR: The New Communication of the EU Commission on CSR and National CSR Strategies and Action Plans, ESDN Quarterly Report December 2011

This Quarterly Report refers to recent developments concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Most importantly, the new Communication on CSR that was published by the European Commission in late October 2011 will be presented and discussed with two leading policy makers. We talked with Tom Dodd (DG Enterprise and Industry), who was one of the key actors in preparing the new Communication, and with Sue Bird (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion), who is in charge of co-ordinating the CSR High Level Group. During the last months, we collected and analysed these policy documents, both from EU Member States and from countries outside the EU. The results are presented in the second part of this report, where you can find comprehensive overviews as well as three case studies of outstanding approaches (Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands). Our aim is to demonstrate the diverse roles of CSR strategies and action plans in Europe and beyond. The new EU Communication on CSR puts forward a new understanding of CSR, which no longer refers to CSR as voluntary action beyond compliance but highlights that every corporation causes impacts which is responsible for. The impact areas (formerly just society and environment) have been enlarged by ethical, human rights and consumer concerns. To support policy learning among the European Member States, the Commission invites Member States to develop or update national CSR strategies and action plans and sets up a peer review system of public CSR policies.