| Abstract |
The three pillars concept of sustainability relies on the multi-stakeholder model and expects socially responsible behavior by each and everyone, including businesses. Their sustainable engagement is the outcome of by them generally freely assumed Corporate Social Responsibility ("CSR"). The EU has been following the sustainability trends and goals set internationally by the UN, including the Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs"). Nevertheless, the EU law requires CSR reporting only by certain businesses and does not go into detail regarding its compulsory content, see Directive 2013/34/EU, especially Art.19a. Large businesses admit to be in the reach of the Directive 2013/34/EU and satisfy their CSR reporting duty. However, in what quality is it satisfied during the stress test time? The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted almost all aspects of our life and its consequences for businesses and their conduct in Central Europe are massive and multi-faceted. As a precursor of the assessment of formal CSR reports for 2020 to be filed in 2021, a set of central European case studies regarding various industries was performed in the summer of 2020 to holistically and critically assess whether and how COVID-19 impacted their informal CSR reporting. A qualitative Delphi-method was used along with an automatic key word scanning and revealed a significant impact with various nature, intensity and patterns. If this is confirmed by the formal CSR reports to be filed within next 10 months, then it means that the COVID-19 pushes the content of CSR reporting into a new dimension. |
