Corporate Social Responsibility: From Voluntary Concept To Mandatory Reporting

The paper analyses the concept of corporate social responsibility, including its origin and history. It focuses on the approach of the EU Commission and on Directive 2014/95/EU, which introduced mandatory reporting of non-financial information for large undertakings which are public-interest entities and which, based on their balance sheet data, exceed the criterion of an average number of 500 employees during the financial year. Large undertakings must include in the annual report a non-financial statement containing information to the extent necessary to understand the undertaking's development, performance, position, and impact of its activity, relating to, as a minimum, environmental, social, and employee matters, respect for human rights, and anti-corruption matters, including a brief description of the undertaking's business model. The paper first analyses the essence of the concept of corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) and its understanding, historical development, and possible definitions. It summarises how the concept was gradually institutionalised by various non-governmental organisations and later institutionally regulated by the European Union. The purpose of the paper is to answer the question as to whether mandatory reporting increases the quality of CSR or rather distorts the concept of CSR.