CSR - Socially Responsible Investment [Archived]

EU news & policy debates
- across languages -

Click here for EU news »

Thursday 19 September 2013

BROWSE ALL SECTIONS

NEWS
African immigrants vault Spanish wall in Melilla
Around 100 African migrants successfully entered Europe by mounting a triple wall that divides the Spanish enclave Melilla from Morocco yesterday (17 September).

News | Lawmakers accused of rushing EU data protection law
News | Parliament floats more compensation for delayed air passengers
News | Berlusconi’s ‘crazy idea’: Running for the EU elections in Estonia
News | Haulier boss: Growth and road transport ‘cannot be decoupled’
News | France's €30 billion VAT gap revealed
Hot topics
>> more
SPECIAL REPORTS
Special Reports
>> more
LINKSDOSSIERS

European elections 2014: Different this time?
After the financial and sovereign debt crisis, state bailouts and budget cuts, the May 2014 European elections are expected to take the pulse of public confidence towards the European Union. For the first time, voters will also indirectly choose the next president of the European Commission, giving citizens a fresh chance to shape the future of Europe.

LinksDossier | EU spending: Added value through cooperation
LinksDossier | German elections 2013: Don't mention Europe
LinksDossier | CAP 2014-2020: A long road to reform
LinksDossier | The Lithuanian EU Presidency - ‘A fresh Baltic breeze’
LinksDossier | Payment Services Directive: The new payments landscape
INTERVIEWS

Banker: ‘Member states should handle rights to bank accounts’
The European Commission's proposals to give citizens the right to open a bank account are admirable, according to the European Banking Federation’s Eric Leenders, but there needs to be a clear distinction between opening accounts for economic migrants and opening accounts for social inclusion. He tells EurActiv that bank accounts for social inclusion purposes should be left within the determination of the member states.

Interview | Temp chief: Workers face 'a la carte' employment
Interview | Vassiliou: 'Europeans should get out of their chairs more often'
Interview | Campaigner: ‘For the first time, the EU has power over national health budgets’
Interview | José Bové: US demands on transatlantic trade talks are 'indecent'
Interview | Think tanks: EU elections could get 'pretty ugly'
OPINIONS

New technologies are key to foster EU transparency and participation
The EU should make better use of new technologies to improve its democratic decision making, transparency and participation. This is key in an election year, at a time when the sense of trust among citizens in its institutions is at an all-time low, writes Marietje Schaake.

Opinion | Re-setting the way to a decarbonised Europe
Opinion | A truly multilingual capital for the European Union
Opinion | Why Somaliland does not attend ‘New Deal for Somalia’ conference
Opinion | New Deal for Somalia is an important deal
Opinion | How to escape the intergenerational injustice trap in Europe's aging societies
BLOGS

Food for Thought: Mrs. Matvienko’s visit in Athens
These couple of days the Vice President of the Russian Federation Mrs. Valentina Matvienko is paying official visit to capital Athens. Her visit coin..

Blog | ATAG ‘Flightpath’ showcases aviation’s environmental commitment
Blog | EU concern about Ukraine’s trade barriers growth
Blog | Eight small European Countries are the happiest on Earth
Blog | The UK’s future is in a prosperous, sustainable and secure European Union
Blog | European Environment Commissioner to Receive Top UN Environment Award
VIDEOS

^-A ⁺A

Published 24 November 2004, updated 28 May 2012

In recent years, Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) has experienced a strong surge in popularity among investors. SRI indicates that the investor takes on a broad responsibility for social concerns such as social justice, human rights and a healthy environment. A term also used is "Triple Bottomline Investments", which derives from the factors used when assessing a company's performance on sustainable development: economic, social and environmental.

Display on single page

Issues
Timeline
External Links

Issues

There is little EU wide information on the actual market share of SRI. But in the UK, where ethical investment has advanced fastest, SRI accounts for ca. 5%. CSR Europe has recently made a survey of the use of SRI and its future trends. The results show that attitudes towards SRI are changing:

33% of financial analysts and fund managers offer SRI products and an additional 15% plan to introduce them;
30% believe that social and environmental risk management improves a company's market value in the short term, 86% in the long term;
51% of fund managers and 37% of financial analyst would offer a grant premium to socially responsible companies.

This development towards a more positive approach to SRI might be a result of the initiatives taken in Europe in the past two years to encourage corporate social responsibility in general, and more specifically SRI. For example:

new indices have been developed (national, European and international);
pension funds' practices in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium have been developed to involve SRI products;
a European Sustainable and Responsible Investment Forum has been set up. It was launched in November 2001.

The European Commission's Communication on corporate social responsibility published in July 2002, suggested the following initiatives:

invite occupational pension schemes and retail investment funds to disclose whether and how they take account of social, environmental and ethical factors in their investment decisions;
encourage initiatives aiming at monitoring and benchmarking pracitices of pension funds and investment funds with regard to and in support of CSR.
ask the CSR multi-stakeholder forum to consider whether a common EU approach to SRI can be established.

Timeline

A Communication on CSR was published by the European Commission on 2 July 2002, and it is currently being discussed by the European Parliament. As a follow-up to the CSR Communication, stakeholders regularly meet in the framework of a series of round tables to discuss the appropriateness of establishing common guiding principles for CSR practices and communication.