"Trusting corporations to be responsible: A failed EU experiment", 13 Nov 2015

…Companies have a huge impact on our lives and the lives of generations to come, and the negative consequences of their activities can cause long-terms and sometimes irreparable damages to people, society and the environment…The [European] Commission can change things by putting forth a new CSR Strategy (expected in 2016) that promotes ambitious rules for better accountability, and obliges businesses to address and mitigate the concrete risks and impacts of their activities…The VW [Volkswagen] scandal has not only exposed how little some companies care about human rights or how weak our regulatory system is. It also proved that the concept of CSR is being depleted of meaning by glossy PR campaigns and relentless lobbying. Just as citizens cannot respect some laws and ignore others, companies should not be allowed to pick and choose what human rights they want to uphold. By haggling and asking for a self-tailored responsibility and mitigation system, corporations are requesting to be placed above the law...