Could European Companies Become 'socially responsible'?

I've been researching the possibility of proposing a new European CSR corporation to the European Community (EC). To date, all the legislation on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is non-binding; however, the EU commission has published more than a dozen communications on the importance of CSR practices for European businesses.

One reason for this lack of binding legislation could be simply due to the fact that the EC does not have competence to address CSR issues. Nevertheless, the EC does have competence to create new companies. The EC enacted the SE (European LLC in 2001) and the SEC (European cooperative society in 2004). Therefore, I see no reason why the EC would be prohibited from creating a new 'socially responsible' European company. In fact, the majority of its Member States already have some form of CSR corporation so it would seem consistent with 'European personality.'

In my opinion, this new European CSR company would need to have the possibility to pursue both a legitimate business AND social purpose to the same extent. Although this would not exemplify the 'For-Benefit' archetype of the Fourth Sector, it would allow For-Benefit companies to emerge in a new legal arena where few barriers exist for social entrepreneurs who would like to do good and do well...

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Have an amazing weekend!

-Alissa