Taking company human rights self-regulation and transparency seriously: the role of the European Union

Abstract

In this thesis the efforts of the European Union will be analysed in relation to the social side (human rights side) of corporate social responsibility and the transparency of these commitments of European enterprises. As self-regulation makes corporate social responsibility work, this is chosen to be the central notion of the thesis. Therefore, the definition of self-regulation will be analysed in the beginning and will be connected to human rights, then to transparency. The latter is highly important for the reliability of selfregulation. Here, the multistakeholder approach is of crucial importance, being the only way to effectively facilitate corporate social responsibility by public participation. The thesis in its larges part will analyse the efforts of the European Union, which according to this a thesis shall result in a European wide voluntary system, with European wide standardised monitoring mechanism. Here, the most significant difference is between the European Parliament and the European Commission, as they take a different approach towards corporate social responsibility, consequently towards self-regulation and the transparency of thereof. Currently the position that prevails is that of the Commission, making self-regulation an issue for the companies. It appears most significantly by the establishment and the working methods of the European Alliance on Corporate Social Responsibility. Before the concluding part of the thesis some developments within and outside the European Union will be analysed, which can be considered as best practices for a transparent European mechanism.