18 Amendments of Helmut SCHOLZ related to 2012/2097(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 a (new)
Paragraph -1 a (new)
- 1a. Welcomes the fact that the new definition established in the Commission's CSR Communication of 25.10.2011 emphasises that respect for applicable legislation and collective agreements is a prerequisite for responsible action and specifies the framework required for corporate responsibility by demanding that ‘social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns’ are integrated into the operations and core strategy of businesses in close collaboration with their stakeholders; reiterates that corporate social responsibility must also extend to enterprises’ behaviour towards and in third countries;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the efforts of the European Union and the Member States to align their policies with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises updated in 2011 and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights1, whileand stressinges that these efforts do not yet amount to a thorough engagement in this proces, particularly in the non national-state-regulated sector of global business activity, do not yet amount to a thorough engagement to respecting and reviewing relevant environmental, social and human rights standards;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Regrets that the Commission has not yet drawn up concrete proposals on the implementation of CSR principles in EU trade policy and stresses that CSR, both within the EU and in third countries, should be extended to address areas such as the organisation of work, equal opportunities, social inclusion, anti- discrimination and continuous education and training;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Insists that each of the 27 Member States must accelerate the revision of their national action plans on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the development of national plans implementing UN Guiding Principles, which should be finalised at the latest by December 2013; callrelevant OECD Guidelines and UN Guiding Principles; encourages the Member States oin the EU to facilitate learning from the experience of those EU States which are currentlso doing to attach great importance to the requirements of comparability, transparency uandergoing this process; encourages the Member States to draw inspiration from guidance developed by the European Group of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) verifiability via standardisation, the introduction of a public reporting requirement and the involvement of democratically elected bodies representing workers;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Commits itself to step up its efforts continually so that EU institutions and officials, including the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, are required to enforce social, environmental and human rights standards in all EU external relations and actions;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Emphasises that the CSR of enterprises both within the EU and in third countries should also be extended to areas such as the organisation of work, the quality of employment, equal opportunities, social inclusion, combating discrimination and continuing training;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for greater policy coherence at EU level by bringing public procurement as well as export credit, good governance, competition, development, trade, investment and other policies and agreements into conformity with the international human rights standards and principles, and in this context encouragesly binding social, environmental and human rights standards laid down in the relevant OECD and UN guidelines and principles, and in this context calls for cooperation with bodies representing workers and consumers while drawing on relevant NHRI advice, such as the ‘European Group submission to the EC on human rights and procurement’; calls for meaningful and adequate impact assessments of legislative proposals for potential incoherence with the Guiding Principles, and insists on the coordination with the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, to avoid disparate and inconsistent interpretation of the UN Guiding Principles;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Undertakes to place the corporate social responsibility issue on the agendas of all future EU meetings with third countries, especially with privileged relations partners, and calls for corporate social and environmental responsibility to be integrated into contractual relations between the EU and third countries;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Commits itself to continue to raise consistently its expectation that EU institutions and officials, including the EU Special Representative on Human Rights, undertakebe obliged to efnforts to advance the human rights and business agendace social, environmental and human rights standards in all EU external relations and actions;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recognises that Paris Principles-aligned NHRIs are uniquely positioned to provide support for the implementation of the UNnited Nations Guiding Principles, including facilitating, if not or also to facilitate, or even ensuringe, 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 frameworklongside enterprises and bodies representing workers and consumers as key partners in the development of tools to promote internationally recognised social, environmental and human rights standards; 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 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Undertakes to place the ‘human rights and business’corporate social responsibility issue on the agendas of forthcoming EU meetings with third countries, especially with privileged relations partners, and requests, if necessary, that translations of the UN Guiding Principles be carried out using the EP’s or ocalls for corporate social and environmental responsibility to be incorporated into ther EU institutions’ capacity's contractual relations with third countries;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 – point 1
Paragraph 7 – point 1
(1) ensure that ‘human rights and business’the topic of corporate social responsibility features among the priorities of individual financial instruments under the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) perspective for the period 2014- 2020; and
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 – point 2
Paragraph 7 – point 2
(2) develop specific support under the EIDHR for training and overall capacity- building in the area of human rights and business ofcorporate social responsibility for civil society organisations, NHRIs, human rights defenders, trade unions, and other human rights organisations;
Amendment 24 #
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 OECD and UN Gguiding Pelines and principles and based on objective indicators, such as the gender pay gap, and indicators and reporting guidelines referring to disability;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Reiterates its calls on the EU and the Member States to improve the enforcement of existing laws integrating ‘business and human rights’corporate social responsibility concerns, and to develop further solutions aiming at a ‘level playing field’ for domestic and third countries’ business enterprises;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Calls on the EU and the Member States, with respect to CSR infringements, to adopt specific binding rules on granting fundamental rights to effective remedy and access to an impartial and independent tribunal, referring in particular to the fact that these are secured in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and in Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; reaffirms the need to encourage transnational judicial cooperation with the aim of establishing judicial procedures and non- judicial redress mechanisms;
Amendment 33 #
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 OECD and UN Gguiding Pelines and principles should be a priority, reflected in specific contractual clauses, and with consequences for companies blatantly violating social, environmental and human rights standards; recommends that the envisaged ‘EU Platform for External Cooperation and Development’ establish such modalitiesCommission come up with corresponding proposals for measures to combat such violations or abuse in the form of ‘greenwashing’;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for a system of legal cooperation to be set up between the EU and third countries signatories to bilateral trade agreements, to ensure effective access to justice for victims in the event of; further calls on the EU and the Member States, with regard to breaches of corporate social responsibility including breaches of social orand environmental legislation by multinationals or failure to honour CSR undertakings, to adopt binding rules on the protection of the fundamental rights to effective legal remedies and access to an impartial and independent court, and refers in particular to Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in which these rights are enshrined;