From CSR to HRDD: An Overview of Approaches, Initiatives and Measures Adopted by the European Union

In recent years, the European Union has done much to promote Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Through CSR, enterprises can contribute to the EU objectives of sustainable development and a competitive social market economy. For these purposes, the EU has used a smart mix of voluntary and mandatory actions. The paper provides an overview of these actions, starting from the 2001 Green Paper of the Commission. In particular, it will focus on the renewed EU strategy 2011–14 for CSR, which combines horizontal approaches to promote CSR with more specific strategies for individual sectors or policy areas. This document is a significant turning point because it offers a modern understanding of CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society”. This new definition implies its possible configuration as a set of rules able to assume legal value and to produce legal effects. Thus, the paper analyzes the most significant actions and instruments adopted by the EU for the implementation of the 2011–14 strategy and the new notion of CSR. This analysis will make it possible to grasp the gradual evolution of the EU approach to CSR towards mandatory instruments, such as directives and regulations. In the most recent period, the EU approach seems more strongly oriented towards the adoption of mandatory due diligence legislation to enforce companies’ socially responsible behavior in the post-Covid context. In conclusion, the paper addresses the role played by the EU in supporting and, where necessary, enforcing companies to conduct their business responsibly.