The Netherlands' plans to encourage Corporate Social Responsibility

Late last year, Parliament asked me to investigate how to link CSR criteria – and the OECD Guidelines in particular – to the subsidies government provides for international trade promotion, investment and export credit insurance.

I recently submitted my letter of response to Parliament on this topic, and the letter was adopted by the Cabinet and subsequently endorsed by Parliament.

What all that means is that the policy outlined in the letter is now the policy of the Netherlands Government.

The policy is not without controversy, but then again The Netherlands is well known for some of its other controversial – we like to say progressive and thoughtful – policies!

The letter states that the Dutch government considers CSR to be primarily the private sector's own responsibility.

When direct and indirect government support is given to Dutch companies that are active in foreign markets, however, there is a certain implied co-responsibility of the Government in those activities.

In the Dutch political context, it is unacceptable that taxpayers' money would be used to support projects acquired by bribing foreign officials, by seriously polluting the environment in developing countries or by involving child or forced labour. Dutch taxpayers wouldn’t support this, and thus neither should Dutch policy.

Against this background, the Dutch Government decided that elements of CSR should be incorporated into the official support programs for export, overseas investment promotion and international co-operation.

The Netherlands' government CSR policy is based upon two building blocks.

Under the first building block, the OECD Guidelines were adopted as a suitable reference for acceptable corporate conduct.

Under the second building block, detailed criteria will be developed and implemented to govern official support for Dutch companies' foreign operations.

Regarding the first block, or the explicit linkage to the Guidelines as a whole, the following should be noted. It was clear from the outset that the Guidelines were negotiated by governments to be used on a voluntary basis by the private sector.