The creation of a new European 'social rating' agency was announced in July 2002. The agency, named Vigeo, will assess the social and environmental performance of major European companies. It is chaired by the former French trade union leader, Nicole Notat, and initially funded largely by French companies, plus one French trade union, though other investors and unions are being invited to participate. Vigeo - which has taken over the assets and expertise of ARESE, a body specialising in this field - will have a board of directors on which private companies, investors and unions are equally represented.
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The creation of a new European 'social rating' agency was announced in July 2002. The agency, named Vigeo, will assess the social and environmental performance of major European companies. It is chaired by the former French trade union leader, Nicole Notat, and initially funded largely by French companies, plus one French trade union, though other investors and unions are being invited to participate. Vigeo - which has taken over the assets and expertise of ARESE, a body specialising in this field - will have a board of directors on which private companies, investors and unions are equally represented.
In the context of the European Commission's July 2001 Green Paper on 'corporate social responsibility' (EU0107228F) and the updating of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines for multinational enterprises in June 2000 (EU0009270F), France developed new legislation on 'new economic regulations' (FR0105156F) in 2001, requiring companies on the stock exchange to include a statement on 'the social and environmental impact of their operations' as part of their annual report. At the same time, specialised agencies and companies have been set up over the past few years to help companies meet the various new requirements related to corporate social responsibility.
On 31 July 2002, Nicole Notat, who had been general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) until May 2002 (FR0206103N), officially announced the creation of Vigeo, a European agency for the 'social and environmental rating' of European-scale companies, of which she became chair.
The new entity will become fully operational in January 2003 and is to employ approximately 30 people. According to Ms Notat, the mandate of the new agency is to assess 'the social and environmental performance of companies with a view to making a judgment on the position they have reached in a process of sustainable development'. 'Eurostock' companies will be the main target for Vigeo's investigations.
Vigeo is to have three categories of shareholder - companies, investors and trade unions - and will have equity of EUR 12 million. Currently, the new agency has the backing of the French finance company Eulia (formed by Caisse des Dépôts and Caisse d'Epargne) as its main shareholder-investor, with, according to Ms Notat, between 33% and 40% of Vigeo equity, and 10 major French-based companies (Danone, Suez, Vinci, Carrefour, Accor, Axa, Crédit Lyonnais, BNP, Thomson Multimédia and Schneider Electric). Under the the new company’s articles of association, none of these investor companies may hold more than 2% of equity, and their collective stake is limited to a ceiling of 45%. CFDT is for the time being the only trade union shareholder.
It is hoped that in the future, a total of 35 European – mainly German, Italian and Belgian - companies and several European trade unions will take a stake in the new company. The three shareholder categories - investors, companies and unions - will have equal representation on the board, with three seats each. Vigeo’s senior management will be assisted by a five-member council of experts.
With the assistance of Eulia, Vigeo has been able to take over ARESE, the largest French ratings agency of its kind, prompting the resignation of its senior management. Founded in 1997 by Geneviève Férone, with the backing of the Caisse des dépôts and Caisses d’Epargne, on the model of US rating agencies, ARESE had developed its own unique approach based on corporate social management criteria. It was in the early stages of developing a Europe-wide network with similar bodies with a view to providing social ratings for all major European companies targeted by institutional investors. ARESE provides Ms Notat and Vigeo with well-established technical expertise .
Vigeo intends to develop indicators to measure the compliance of company practices with corporate evaluation criteria that, according to Ms Notat, should be as detailed and irrefutable as possible - based on International Labour Organisation international labour standards, OECD guiding principles, commitments to sustainable development developed by the United Nations, national regulations and provisions based on collective bargaining.
Vigeo's assessments will not only be designed for investors. A new range of evaluation products based on internal audit and financial ratings agency models will be geared to the corporate market. In this way, Vigeo plans to bring together what, especially in the USA, have hitherto been two quite distinct activities by catering to the demands of both companies and investors at the same time.
The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT) and CFDT trade union sections at Caisse des dépôts and Caisses d’Epargne published a critical joint press release on 7 August 2002 expressing their 'surprise and interest' at Vigeo's creation, while stressing that they would remain 'vigilant'.
Eurofound doporučuje citovat tuto publikaci následujícím způsobem.
Eurofound (2002), New European social ratingagency created, article.
