Turkey needs to develop CSR policy
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by Cansu Camlibel
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 06, 2008 00:00
BRUSSELS - Seriously affected by the financial crisis, Europe is focusing on "social responsibility" as an instrument to strengthen competitiveness.
A recent event in Brussels staged messages for both the urgent need to redefine basic principles in order to maintain the sustainability of Europe's social model, and also the need for Turkey to quickly catch up with the changing business environment.
Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, Europe, which has 25 national partner organizations including one in Turkey, launched a toolbox Thursday.
The toolbox contains a set of guidelines for companies to gain competitive advantage through business practices. The toolbox is a result of a series of business-stakeholder co-operations projects, including research reports, online resources and collaborative network models on issues, such as reducing the environmental impact of industrial products, promoting employee health.
"Today's crisis brings our financial, economic and governance systems to a moment of truth," said the President of CSR Europe Etienne Davignon and added that unconventional business-stakeholder partnerships needed to be fostered.
"Europe's quest to engage and serve its citizens, to protect the environment and to earn a just place in the world is at stake here," said Hans-Gert Pottering, the president of the European Parliament. Vice president of the European Commission, Gunter Verheugen, urged all European companies to join the alliance of CSR Europe.
Among 20 different projects, results of which were made public by CSR Europe, "employee community engagement" stood as a striking example which could also inspire Turkey. The project aimed to improve the skills essential for employment amongst disadvantaged and socially excluded groups of people within the EU. The project included sub-projects ranging from improving IT skills of school leavers in Romania to mentoring refugees in Britain to prepare them for accountancy and finance work.
CSR Europe's work is being followed very closely by CSR Turkey, which became the first non-EU member of the umbrella organization in Europe last year. CSR Turkey defends that strengthening the social responsibility concept in the country could facilitate EU membership talks.
CSR law before 2010
According to the experts, the Turkish government must develop a national road-map, set up an office and pass a CSR law before the end of 2009, as it lags behind most of the CSR provisions already in place in most EU-member states. The first and most compelling reason for a CSR law comprises the need to establish a body in order to coordinate the government's work.
Strengthening the State Planning Organization, or DPT, has been proposed as an initial step so that it can provide recommendations about the location of a CSR office in the executive branch of the government.
Such a law would allow the office to file civil or criminal charges against companies that committed CSR offenses. One of the major drawbacks in making CSR operational in Turkey has been the insufficient detection and punishment of corporate activities that harm society and the environment, because in many cases companies are able to pay token fines and continue socially harmful business activities.
Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, Europe, which has 25 national partner organizations including one in Turkey, launched a toolbox Thursday.
The toolbox contains a set of guidelines for companies to gain competitive advantage through business practices. The toolbox is a result of a series of business-stakeholder co-operations projects, including research reports, online resources and collaborative network models on issues, such as reducing the environmental impact of industrial products, promoting employee health.
"Today's crisis brings our financial, economic and governance systems to a moment of truth," said the President of CSR Europe Etienne Davignon and added that unconventional business-stakeholder partnerships needed to be fostered.
"Europe's quest to engage and serve its citizens, to protect the environment and to earn a just place in the world is at stake here," said Hans-Gert Pottering, the president of the European Parliament. Vice president of the European Commission, Gunter Verheugen, urged all European companies to join the alliance of CSR Europe.
Among 20 different projects, results of which were made public by CSR Europe, "employee community engagement" stood as a striking example which could also inspire Turkey. The project aimed to improve the skills essential for employment amongst disadvantaged and socially excluded groups of people within the EU. The project included sub-projects ranging from improving IT skills of school leavers in Romania to mentoring refugees in Britain to prepare them for accountancy and finance work.
CSR Europe's work is being followed very closely by CSR Turkey, which became the first non-EU member of the umbrella organization in Europe last year. CSR Turkey defends that strengthening the social responsibility concept in the country could facilitate EU membership talks.
CSR law before 2010
According to the experts, the Turkish government must develop a national road-map, set up an office and pass a CSR law before the end of 2009, as it lags behind most of the CSR provisions already in place in most EU-member states. The first and most compelling reason for a CSR law comprises the need to establish a body in order to coordinate the government's work.
Strengthening the State Planning Organization, or DPT, has been proposed as an initial step so that it can provide recommendations about the location of a CSR office in the executive branch of the government.
Such a law would allow the office to file civil or criminal charges against companies that committed CSR offenses. One of the major drawbacks in making CSR operational in Turkey has been the insufficient detection and punishment of corporate activities that harm society and the environment, because in many cases companies are able to pay token fines and continue socially harmful business activities.