2016/025
Paris, February 17, 2016
Dear Fellow Chairs,
On, Wednesday May 18, 2016, the European Affairs Committee of the French
National Assembly will hold an inter-parliamentary meeting bringing together
representatives of the national parliaments and of the European Parliament on the issue of
corporate social responsibility (CSR) and on the question of the posting of workers.
The idea is that by dealing with these subjects, the consideration of social
rights can be encouraged in the context of the activities of European companies and their
responsibility in this field both within the Union and in other countries can be highlighted.
The French National Assembly has expressed its voice on each of these topics
by means of resolutions. It has pleaded in favour of a concrete implementation of the
social dimension of the European project which would be coherent with the political
priorities announced, in particular by the President, Jean-Claude Juncker.
Indeed, the national approaches to CSR, as well as those based solely on the
good will of companies, as useful as they may be, do not fulfill the requirements of the
globalization of supply chains from the human rights point of view as well as from a
social and economic development point of view in addition to the protection of the
environment. In its resolution of June 25, 2015, adopted upon the initiative of the
European Affairs Committee, the French National Assembly thus considered it necessary
for CSR to be strengthened in European law, by including obligations in the field of
companies corporate vigilance concerning their business relations, their subsidiaries, their
sub-contractors and their suppliers, as is proposed by the main directors of the OECD and
of the United Nations. Nonetheless, the content of these obligations must be detailed, as
well as their field of application and indeed the sanctions which would be imposed if they
were not respected. This inter-parliamentary meeting will be the opportunity to bring
together our ideas and to bring our points of view closer in the perspective of the “green
card” project which I presented on this subject.
To the chairs of the relevant national parliamentary standing committees