4.6 Final remarks

Since 2003, the EU Member States have been implementing the provisions of the Modernisation Directive, among which the new standards for the annual reports of large EU based companies. One of the new standards entails, where appropriate, the provision of information on non-financial matters, such as environmental and employee matters, relating to the worldwide business activities. The EP has frequently directed political attention to the development of CSR. Transparency in corporate practices, in the EU and abroad, seems desirable for consumers, banks and institutional investors. It will enhance a proper working market.

The new annual accounts standards had to be incorporated in national law by the beginning of 2005. Most Member States succeeded in implementing these and mainly followed the wording of the Modernisation Directive. The DCC was also amended accordingly.

A quick scan of annual reports over 2006 of large Euronext listed companies, registered in the Netherlands, revealed that the majority addressed environmental and employee matters in their annual reports. However, companies tend to maintain old habits. They seem to easily generate information on personnel matters, as they were used to producing this in their annual report, whereas they are lacking in generating substantial and clear information about other non-financial aspects. They do not use the Dutch Council for Annual Reporting's Guideline 400 in a systematic way, although this guideline on CSR reporting in the annual report was already published in 2003.

Annex 4.2 shows as a trend that companies prefer to create an extensive complementary CSR report, based on the newest GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (2006), rather than to provide detailed non-financial information in their annual accounts. It is noted that although the GRI standards are not codified, they do play a significant role. The question is how this situation will evolve. Will companies stick to a short annual report complemented by an extensive GRI report, or will these two reports fuse into one large report in the future?