Corporate social responsibility, a dislocated European plan

The European Union (EU) has developed a special approach to corporate social responsibility by incorporating it into its strategies of employment and social cohesion and of sustainable development. This should make it possible to diffuse the European social model inside and outside the EU. Through an unprecedented dialog between institutions and "civil society", the EU planned to explore the possibility of a consensus on a framework for corporate social responsibility. This article seeks to shed light on the perilous disconnection between European institutions, companies and society at a time when the corporate social responsibility practiced by European firms has turned into a vector of innovation in labor relations by becoming a subject transnational negotiations. It has also become a litmus test of the limits of a self-regulation, worldwide, of labor questions. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.