Madam President, the European Parliament first called for action on corporate social responsibility in 1999. We welcome the Commission's Green Paper and today we set out a series of concrete steps which will turn European debates into European action. Let me highlight four steps in particular. First, rules for disclosure of basic information about the company's social and environmental impacts. Although some companies now produce voluntary triple bottom line reports, too many do not. Of those that do, the OECD tells us that two thirds ignore internationally recognised standards, avoid independent verification or disown responsibility down their supply chain. Such rights of disclosure would build on the new economic regulations law in France, similar legislation here in Belgium, and the occupational pension scheme regulation in the United Kingdom. For business, it is about levelling the playing field, reducing cost, simplifying procedures and industry representatives from British Telecoms, USF – even an old bête noire like Chiquita – have all said this must come in time. We ask the Commissioner to learn the lessons of her own excellent public consultation. Nearly half of the respondents challenge the basic definition of CSR as simply one beyond compliance. Legislation and voluntary action are not mutually exclusive. The prospect of legislation spurs voluntary efforts which in turn establish norms which legislation entrenches for future years. We must and should encourage both. That is why the European Parliament will today vote for mandatory social and environmental reporting by companies, for new corporate governance rules, including making board members individually responsible for the social and environmental performance of the firm, and we will reaffirm our call for a new legal base for jurisdiction over European companies operations world-wide. We want to see CSR issues incorporated in the European social dialogue, but we support too the setting up of an EU multi-stakeholder CSR forum. This will allow others with a legitimate interest in corporate performance to have a voice. The forum should not replace or duplicate existing initiatives which will drive forward the debate of the EU level, and should be a forum which will not be all mouth but which will have real teeth. CSR really must be built into all EU policies and programmes. It is quite breathtaking that the European Commission and the European Investment Bank commit billions of euros of European taxpayers' money each year to the private sector, through contracts, regional aid, investment promotion, yet we do not have simple contractual clauses to respect the basic labour and environmental standards nor clear monitoring and complaints procedures to enforce them. The Dutch Government has shown the way by linking access to export credits to compliance with voluntary standards. The EU must follow suit. We want to encourage voluntary action by companies, including the excellent business campaign led by CSR Europe, but we must balance our praise for good practice by the best companies with the recognition that we live in a world where there is also corporate irresponsibility. Within Europe, we have the devastation of mass closures on affected communities or the difficulties of accessing capital in the poorest communities where it is needed most. Today the greatest public concern in Europe surrounds the abuses by European multinationals in developing countries. It is about the hundreds of people murdered each year for taking part in legitimate trade-union activity; two-hundred and fifty million working children world-wide; export processing zones set up specifically to evade minimum standards or the clothing sweatshops where they are simply ignored; slave labour on West African cocoa plantations or building oil installations in Burma; the victims of those killed in the civil wars in Angola or Sierra Leone, fuelled by the trade in conflict diamonds or corrupt payments to exploit minerals extraction; 1.5 million babies dying each year because their mothers do not breast feed misled by the marketing practices for infant formula. European companies can knowingly or otherwise be part of these abuses and they can be part of ending them too. That is why the European Parliament will today vote to make CSR an active part of our trade agreements, development assistance, of our unparalleled network of delegations in third countries. The EU itself must make a serious contribution to the implementation of the OECD guidelines on multi-national enterprise and should act as a champion of new global standards in international institutions, standards which put investor responsibility on an equal footing to investor rights. These are the elements that will truly forge a European framework for corporate social responsibility.

Political group: PSE