3.5.5 Freshfields Report, Eumedion Position Paper and Frijns Code

Concluding, the Freshfields Report indicates that it is not only permissible for institutional investors to consider ESG factors, but that their fiduciary duty requires that these factors be considered. The same line was followed in Fiduciary II and is now followed by Eumedion, which promotes training of institutional investors and their asset managers in order that they will be able to integrate ESG factors into the investment process. Consequently, according to the author, the Burgmans Report pointed in the right direction by advising to include in the Frijns Code that institutional investors 'decide, in a careful and transparent way, whether they wish to exercise their rights as shareholder of listed companies and whether and to which extent they take into account ESG-factors' [Emphasis added]. It is regrettable that the Frijns Code did not include this phrase. However, we may perhaps anticipate - as announced by Eumedion - a new Dutch code for institutional investors covering such issue.