mr president as this parliament's rapporteur on corporate social responsibility for over three parliamentary terms now i strongly welcome my colleague harlem désir's initiative on trade and csr
companies often say they should mainstream csr and this initiative reflects that public policy should do so too
i very much hope that commissioner de gucht will reflect its recommendations in the new trade policy communication
in recent years my own work has increasingly involved representing european interests in advancing global csr mechanisms
therefore as a friend of the oecd guidelines in my view now the foremost international csr standard and also one signed up to by governments i strongly support paragraph twenty-five that future eu trade agreements should specifically cite the guidelines
the commission officially operates national contact points under those guidelines and i hope this commitment will also be reviewed
as a consultee of professor john ruggie on business and human rights i endorse the requirement in recital q of the report for companies to undertake due diligence and congratulate the previous swedish presidency for putting full support for the un special representatives recommendations into the council conclusions
the commissioner should particularly read ruggie's strong criticism of governmental failures to respect human rights considerations as the commission develops its new competence on investment
as a member of the advisory board of the global reporting initiative can i endorse the objective of transparency in paragraph fifteen but also ask that the imminent public consultation by the commission on non-financial disclosure moves decisively towards the principle of integrated reporting on financial social environmental and human rights impacts by companies
