On 18 September 2009, Teresa Fogelberg, GRI Deputy Chief Executive attended the first of a series of five workshops that are being convened by the European Commission Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General throughout 2009-2010. The workshops are meant to facilitate better coordination and communication between existing initiatives in the field of ESG disclosure, and to deepen the understanding of all stakeholders, including the European Commission, of the issues at stake, recent developments and current good practice. Importantly the meetings are also seeking to identify the most effective and efficient ways to promote a better and more widespread disclosure of ESG information. The first meeting focused primarily on business stakeholders.
As with the first meeting, each subsequent meeting will be held in Brussels and will consist of a core group - of which GRI is a part – as well as a rotating group of stakeholders. The French, Danish and Spanish government representatives will also be attending, as well as Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency. Herman Mulder - the former Head of Group Risk Management for ABN AMRO and Board Member for both TEEB and GRI - will be addressing the workshop at the next meeting on 30 October, which will see the group focus on investors (mainstream and SRI), financial analysts, accountants, and rating agencies.