EU: European employers in favor of a voluntary code of conduct for ethics in business

Image.  During this meeting, organized by the Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EECS) under the aegis of the Polish Presidency of the EU, employers’ representatives wondered about entrepreneurs’ ethics commitments and about businesses’ “societal” responsibility.  They also talked about what the EU could do in this area.  They all agreed that the lack of ethics was detrimental to the company’s image and partly the reason for the global economic crisis.  Henri Malosse, President of the EESC Employers’ Group, thinks that European businesses cannot teach anyone lessons in this respect.  “European businesses always claim that they are better than the others but that’s far from being the case.  When European businesses operate outside Europe, they are not more ethical than the others.”  In some countries, bribery is still common to get contracts, and some European businesses do not hesitate to pay bribes.  “Any commitment in terms of ethics will require businesses that invest abroad avoid these practices” Malosse went on.