Activities of Jean-Jacob BICEP related to 2012/2098(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Corporate social responsibility: accountable, transparent and responsible business behaviour and sustainable growth - Corporate social responsibility: promoting society's interests and a route to sustainable and inclusive recovery (debate)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on Corporate Social Responsibility: accountable, transparent and responsible business behaviour and sustainable growth
Amendments (10)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Considers corporate social responsibility to be a relevant concept for enabling control to be exercised over enterprises’ actions and their impacts; points out that such control is essential for achieving the objectives of the Treaty on European Union and the objectives referred to in the Communication of building a more cohesive society and bringing about a transition towards a sustainable economy; believes, however, that being of a voluntary nature it is insufficient to ensure that enterprises comply fully with social and environmental standards in line with the objectives laid down; calls on the Commission to establish a binding framework for corporate social responsibility for all enterprises in the areas in which they operate;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Stresses the importance of assessing an enterprise's compliance with social responsibility in terms of the entire supply chain; considers it vital to put in place effective and transparent indicators with which to assess precisely the impact of an enterprise’s activities from a systemic point of view;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recognises that Paris Principles-aligned NHRIs are uniquwelyl positionlaced to provide support for the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles, including facilitating, if not ensuring, access to remedy; calls on the EU and the Member States to recognise NHRIs as a key partner in advancing the human rights and business agenda, in developing linkages between business, state and civil society, and in promoting standards and guidelines developed within the EU framework; calls, in this context, on the Member States to strengthen and, where necessary, broaden the mandates of the NHRIs to make them more effective, or ,where no Paris Principles-aligned NHRI is in place, to undertake steps to establish it, and for the EU to develop appropriate strategic support; commits itself to establish a regular annual exchange of views with NHRIs in the framework of LIBE and/or DROI, building on the experiences of the DROI exchange of views on the ‘EU and Eastern Partnership Ombudsmen 2011 Summit’, and to complement such exchanges with targeted workshops on human rights and business;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Insists, in order to ensure that the implementation of the new EU CSR strategy promotes society’s interests, the respect for human rights, and a route to sustainable and inclusive recovery and development, that the legislative proposal on the mandatory disclosure of non- financial information (including environmental, social, and governance information) of companies ensures transparency by providing a clear, unambiguous, common and predetermined framework, with specific reference to human rights, that is fully aligned with the UN Guiding Principles and based on objective indicators, such as the gender pay gap, and indicators and reporting guidelines referring to disabilitythe possibility for workers to join trade unions and conduct collective bargaining, the level of remuneration, the length of the working day and working week and an effective guarantee of safety at work;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls for human rights due diligence standards, including the obligation to carry out social and environmental impact assessments and effective redress mechanisms, at EU level, addressing, among other issues, potentially high human rights impact and risk areas such as global and local supply chains, conflict minerals, and outsourcing, areas where labour law and workers’ protection are insufficient and areas where products which are dangerous for the environment and health are produced;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Requests that where the EU or Member States are partners of business (e.g. in public procurement, state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, ‘blending’, export credit guarantees, large scale projects in third countries), consistency with the UN Guiding Principles should be a priority, reflected in specific contractual clauses, and with legal consequences for companies blatantly violating human rights; recommends that the envisaged ‘EU Platform for External Cooperation and Development’ establish such modalities;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Stresses the importance of the UN ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ framework and considers that its three pillars – the state’s responsibility to protect against human rights violations, the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights and the need for more effective access to remedies – should be supported by appropriate measures to enable their implementation;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Acknowledges thatBelieves that even if grievances against EU companies operating abroad are often more usefully solved in situ, the companies should be liable in their country of origin for violations which they or entities which they control commit in third countries; commends the OECD National Contact Points as state- based non- legal mechanisms that can mediate over a broad range of business and human rights disputes; calls, however, for a greater effort by companies in developing grievance mechanisms aligned with the effectiveness criteria stated in the Guiding Principles;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Welcomes the Commission’s wish to address the issue of corporate social responsibility in the context of enlargements; is disappointed, nevertheless, that this issue is not specifically addressed in the accession negotiations with candidate countries and that this concept is not mentioned in the Communication from the Commission on the Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2012-20131 __________________ 1 COM(2012) 600 final
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to work towards establishing global advocacy, international guidelines and complementary legislation to ensure that EU businesses have a positive impact in foreign societies; notes that businesses’ positive impact in foreign societies can be assessed in terms of, among other things, local people’s access to resources and their food sovereignty and the endogenous development of societies;