Subject:
European Multi-stakeholder Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility
– your letter of 8 May 2003
Dear
Sir, Madam,
Thank
you for your letter of 8 May 2003, in which you, together with
colleagues from other civil society organisations, discuss the
process of the European Multi-stakeholder Forum so far and present
a number of proposals.
We
very much appreciate the high level of commitment from civil society
organisations to this process, which your initiative reflects.
Indeed, the Commission strongly believes that the EU’s success
in promoting CSR ultimately depends on widespread ownership of
the principles of CSR by business, social partners and civil society.
The CSR Multi-stakeholder Forum was thus set up to promote a partnership
approach between business and their stakeholders aiming at developing
common answers to the challenges of CSR. At its launch last October,
the Forum agreed its Composition and Rules of Procedure. The Commission
is actively involved in the process as it chairs and facilitates
the meetings, promoting constructive dialogue and consensus building
in the identification of drivers, challenges, obstacles and recommendations
for action.
In the Commission’s view, the work climate and exchanges
in the first meetings have been rather encouraging. Nevertheless,
improvements are clearly possible. Therefore your constructive
input is highly valuable and merits full consideration by all
involved parties.
In
this context, the most suitable arena to address the issues you
raised are the Co-ordination Committee meetings and, where appropriate,
the Forum plenary meetings.
The
Co-ordination Committee discussed the content of your letter in
its meetings of 7 and 20 May. The discussions reiterated the interest
from all parties to make the Forum process a success. There was
consensus on several of the points addressed in your letter. Indeed,
it seems to us that the successful meetings of the ‘Knowledge
Round Table’ (2/3 June) and ‘SME Round Table’
(30 June / 1 July) as well as the preparations of the further
meetings under the second wave show that the process is evolving
in line with many of your suggestions.
Meetings
at plenary level serve to assess the progress made. The next plenary
meeting will take place on 15 July. This will provide a further
excellent opportunity to continue with you and the other members
of the Forum the discussions about the process so far and the
lessons that we should draw for the next steps.
Yours
sincerely,
Pedro
ORTUN (signed)
Bernhard
JANSEN (signed)
