Working group was founded to bring further expertise to the European parliament on topics related to responsible business and to increase discussion between various stakeholder groups and EU institutions.
Responsible Business Conduct working group gathers MEPs from most political groups
of the European Parliament.
The European Parliament has adopted its annual report on EU’s action on human rights and democracy, in which it called for the EU’s and European companies’ leadership to promote international standards in business and human rights. The MEPs joined a growing number of companies supporting a legislative proposal on corporate human rights and due diligence
Over 60 signatories from the fields of company law, corporate governance and management issued recently a statement “Corporate Governance for Sustainability” that includes specific policy recommendations to clarify the obligations of company boards and directors in order to make corporate governance practice significantly more sustainable and focused on the long term. The recommendations were published
Companies and financial institutions should be legally bound to address human rights and environmental impact of their global operations and supply chains. The article was originally published on Anti-Slavery International website. Over 100 civil society organisations and trade unions have called on the European Union to develop effective legislation that would oblige companies and financial
Statement of chocolate manufacturers for the European Union to pass due diligence regulation for their supply chains: We, a group of companies (Barry Callebaut AG, Mars Wrigley and Mondelēz International), The VOICE Network*, Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade, call on the European Union, by far the largest importer and consumer of cocoa in the world, to
On 5 November, Fern and the Fair Trade Advocacy Office organised an event in the European Parliament to discuss the European Union’s response to the Amazon Fires and the urgent need to regulate EU agricultural supply chains. The event was co-hosted by Members of the European Parliament Maria Arena, Pascal Canfin, Heidi Hautala and Bernd
The Foreign Affairs / Trade Council of the Council of Europe discussed responsible business conduct in its meeting on 21 November. The issue was brought to the table by the Dutch delegation, which called for enhanced cooperation at the EU level in this field. The Dutch delegation stressed in particular the joint responsibility the EU
Links to the presentations of the Event:
Text by Julia Christian, FernThe text was originally published on Fern website on 13th November 2019. NGOs’ campaign to reduce the European Union’s global forest footprint hit a new milestone on Tuesday, 5 November 2019, when the chairs of the European Parliament’s committees on environment (ENVI), international trade (INTA) and human rights (DROI) all called for a
Text by Jo Blackman, Global WitnessThe blog was originally published on Global Witness website on 7th November 2019 Could European politicians be sitting up and finally paying real attention to climate breakdown? The last few months have seen strong rhetoric on a European Green Deal from the new European Commission, and the circle of interest
The chair of the Responsible Business Conduct working group, Heidi Hautala, has handed over the Shadow EU Action Plan on Business and Human Rights to the Director General of DG Justice Tiina Astola, the Deputy Secretary General in charge of Global and Economic Issues at the European External Action Service, Christian Leffler and William Sleath
