Plenary II: New Forms of Global Governance – Self Regulation, Voluntary Standards and Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships

Panelists:

• Ramon Ollé - former Chairman, Epson Europe & Director, Business Engineering School, Universidad Ramon Llull
• Chris Marsden – Chair, Amnesty International Business Group
• Benjamín Palomo – Executive Director, Repsol YPF Chemicals
• Prof. Atle Midttun - Director, Centre of Corporate Citizenship, and Professor, Norwegian School of Management (presentation )

Moderator: Prof. Xavier Mendoza - Dean, ESADE

The Plenary session was opened by Prof. Xavier Mendoza, Dean of ESADE, who focused on emerging evidence of new partnerships among international organizations and trans-national NGOs who come together and propose pioneer global governance standards and frameworks. Those soft forms of governance, especially at the industry sector level, were the core theme of the plenary session.

Chris Marsden – the first keynote speaker, Chair of Amnesty International Business Group started with a set of questions regarding governance and public interest issues. Is the governance of the public interest part of the role of the business based in society? How far should companies get involved in governance of public interest issues ? What is the ideal vision of such governance and how can the global marketplace be seen as being governed in such a context? Is corporate responsibility really a help as an active engagement of business in social and environmental issues?

Mr. Marsden noted that companies generally do a lot of good things to contribute to the material well being, but unfortunately they are also capable of doing many bad things in the same time and place. Public interest and human rights need to be protected while sustainable development is not in the timeframe in most market decisions. He asked if business can really be expected to take the leadership role in influencing government positions on ethical business and sustainable issues. To prompt reflection, Mr. Marsden finalized his speech with the example of the right engagement between Amnesty International and BP in 2003 that led to significant improvements in governance procedures.

In response, Mr. Ramon Ollé expressed a clear view on the need for cooperation between different actors whether they are NGOs, companies or government institutions. Regarding social and ecological issues in the contemporary world none of them can act in complete isolation. Mr. Ollé in his presentation defended the voluntary approaches to business regulations that, in his opinion, are more effective and efficient. What he called for was to try to minimize regulation and maximize the responsibility that companies accept within market and national boundaries.

He pointed out that adding complexity to communication by too many regulations may be more confusing than efficient. Companies that can freely define their own responsibilities adjust it to their interest and background. At the end Mr. Olle underlined the importance of European Union in promoting CR activities.

In his presentation, Mr. Benjamin Palomo highlighted a couple of key examples of how the company that he represents fosters sustainable business models in day to day practice. He focused on the Corporate Responsibility Masterplan that Repsol implemented in 2006 and underlined the importance of company transparency, commitment and social responsibility. Awareness of business social function is crucial for sustainable, safe and society-friendly being.

The last speaker, Prof. Atle Midttun, Director of the Centre of Corporate Citizenship at the Norwegian School of Management, also recognised a great need for governments, industry and civil society organizations to come together and act in a complementary way. He emphasized that government, as well as business, needs recognition and a separate regulatory case. Prof. Atle Midttun evoked several approaches to partnered governance in a globalised world:

• Unleashing creativity and creating synergy with industrial strategy
• Mutually supporting activities: government legitimation of industrial engagements
• Legislative triggering of industrial strategy
• Implementation
• Industrial implementation of soft law through their value chains
• Government learning from industry
• Adopting private industrial practices into public sector

Even limited government action can trigger industrial action and create momentum.

He explained his view that industry needs support from government but both partners needs to act in a smart way to achieve consensus between industrial practices, implementation and government regulation.

Questions and comments were invited from the audience, one of which questioned that evoked the role of the media in promoting regulatory standards and regulation, the role of international institutions, governance and CSR. In response, Mr. Marsden raised the issue of legitimacy and pointed out that companies find themselves in the position where they can make a great difference on the ground. Their decision whether not to do so is as important as government's decision to do so. Companies have a totally legitimate role to play but must do that in very open and transparent way.

Ramon Ollé also underlined the critical issue of creating the frameworks for sustainable legislation. Through fostering the transparency media can play very active role in that.

Finally, with reference to innovation diffusion process Prof. Midttun shared his view that with the right process social and environmental issues can start on the civil society - business agenda and then can be pushed into more mature institutionalized agenda.