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foeeurope, brussels
3 july 2002
ONE WEEK AFTER
WORLDCOM: EUROPE BOWS TO BIG BUSINESS
WHITE PAPER ON CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY DISAPPOINTING, SAYS FOEE.
The European Commission has missed a huge
opportunity to stop
big business scandals by producing a White
Paper on Corporate Social
Responsibility that advocates leaving big
business to regulate itself. The
proposal comes just days after the Worldcom
scandal provided the latest
example of corporate mismanagement and
corruption.
The Commission's paper ignores calls from
Friends of the Earth and
others for binding rules to regulate
multi-national companies
world-wide. FOE has called for the paper to
address binding corporate
accountability including key measures such
as, at the very least,
mandatory social and environmental
reporting.
But big business has been in Brussels
arguing against regulation, and the
White Paper now contains only voluntary
measures. This will put Anna
Diamantopoulou, Commissioner for Employment
and Social Affairs at odds with the European
Parliament, which, for example, recently
voted in favour of mandatory social and
environmental reporting.
New alliances are being formed between
environment, human rights,
development groups and trade unions to fight
for global rules for
multinational companies, which civil
societies sees as a prerequisite for
sustainable development. The groups are
determined to make it a key issue at this
year's Earth Summit in Johannesburg and
demand from the EU to start a process at the
World Summit which will result in a legally
binding convention on corporate
accountability
(http://www.foei.org/media/2002/0601.html).
A recent report by UNEP reviewed progress
by big business on social
and environmental issues since the 1992 Rio
Earth Summit. The report
entitled "Industry and Environment -
Achievements, Unfinished Business and Future
Challenges" concluded that, despite a
plethora of voluntary
initiatives, "there is a growing gap between
the efforts of business and
industry to reduce their impact on the
environment and the worsening state
of the planet". This gap, say UNEP, "is due
to the fact that in most
industry sectors, only a small number of
companies are actively striving
for sustainability". At the report launch,
Klaus Toepfer, Executive
Director of UNEP noted that "the majority of
companies are still doing
business as usual" (report available at
www.unep.org).
Craig Bennett, Corporates Campaigner at
Friends of the Earth said: "When shareholders
and financial institutions are hurt by
dodgy
corporate dealings - as in the case of Enron
and now Worldcom -
politicians rush to intervene, demanding
prosecutions and tougher
laws. But when it is ordinary people or the
environment that suffer,
politicians and the European Commission go
for the 'voluntary
approach', allowing corporations to continue
with business as usual.
Today's announcement by the Commission
suggests that it is now the
corporations that are regulating governments
- rather than the other
way round. The European Commission has shown
itself to be on the side of big business.
It's now over to MEPs and the Danish EU
Presidency, to put people and the planet
before profits".
Contact:
Craig Bennett, Corporates Campaigner,
Friends of the Earth England,
Wales and Northern Ireland, Tel +44 20 7566
1667, Mob +44 7747 123567, Pgr +44 7654
588862 or Matt Phillips, FoE EWNI, Tel +44-20
7566 1660, Mob +44 7817 314706
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