Brussels, 12 April 2005

EURO COOP is the European Community of Consumer Co-operatives, whose members are the national organisations of consumer co-operatives in 15 of the 25 EU Member States and in 2 EU Candidate Countries. Created in 1957, EURO COOP today represents over 3,200 local or regional co-operatives, membership of which amounts to 22 million consumers in Europe.

EURO COOP welcomes the report issued by the European Multi Stakeholder Forum on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). It is an important step towards the acknowledgment of companies' role in terms of social and environmental issues. CSR is of utmost importance to promote sustainable entrepreneurship and meet the social goals set out at the Lisbon Summit.

EURO COOP acknowledges that the report draws on important issues such as awareness raising, exchange of information and education. Nonetheless, EURO COOP wishes that the emphasis was not only laid on "communication" but also on "action". EURO COOP is also worried about the lack of mandatory principles in the report.

CSR is one of the core values of consumer co-operatives, whom have always been committed to social concern and fair trading. Since their creation, they have promoted a way of doing business that is inherently responsible. Care for community (including third countries), solidarity and environmental protection are amongst their first priorities.

CSR is also a really important trend for consumers who are increasingly aware of ethical aspects of production. Beyond price and quality, they care about the way products are manufactured and their content. Consumer co-operatives are particularly aware of this dimension since their main objective is to satisfy members' needs and expectations, not only to make profit. Consumer co-operatives can thus be considered as key players in the field of CSR given that they combine commercial and consumer approaches. EURO COOP believes that it would be of utmost interest to look at the experiences of consumer co-operatives to develop best practices and exploit their recognised potential in promoting CSR.

Moreover, EURO COOP believes that it is important to encourage undertakings that promote CSR. Favouring long term employment rather than short term contracts is for example more costly as regards taxation. To this extent consumer co-operatives, which strive to promote the integration of unemployed and disadvantaged people into work are penalized compared to enterprises that have a rapid workforce turnover, regardless of employment durability. Public incentives should therefore reward companies that promote higher social and environmental responsible corporate behaviour.

EURO COOP would furthermore like to reiterate its comments made to the European Commission's Green Paper: "Promoting a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility" (COM (2001) 366) , which EURO COOP believes are also important to include in the upcoming European Commission document:

The Role for the EU:

The role for the EU, and for national Governments should be to encourage CSR and to enhance transparency by encouraging businesses to report on their combined contribution to economic prosperity, environmental quality and social capital, the so-called "triple bottom line". Initially, the EU should look to raise awareness of social responsibility and should commission research to demonstrate its economic as well as social value. The business case for CSR must be stressed in order to achieve widespread take-up.

The Consumer Aspect:

EURO COOP believes that more emphasis should be put on the interests of consumers, although we recognise that social accountability is a balanced process, which should give fair consideration to all stakeholders. It is important to raise consumers' awareness of the issue through various sources of information, and for consumers to become part of the stakeholder dialogue.

Another aspect that should be addressed is consumer protection. It is important that companies respect consumers' privacy by not making consumer profiles of single consumers.

Evaluation and Effectiveness:

It is vital that external auditing of social and environmental reports should be carried out by a body, which is independent of the business involved, in order to ensure the effectiveness and reliability of CSR policies, as well as to gain consumer confidence.

Actions to support Corporate Social Responsibility:

EURO COOP believes it is essential that the European Commission, among others, funds projects in order to promote and support the development of corporate social responsibility on all levels (the enterprise, local, regional, sectoral, national and global). Such funding should support projects in the field of training, dissemination and exchange of information, medium-term social policy analysis and research, and analysis of the role of the legal framework.

Donal Walshe, Secretary General

Tel.: +32.(0)2.285.00.70
Fax: +32.(0)2.231.07.57
E-mail: info@eurocoop.coop