A Review of the Ethical Aspects of Corporate Governance Regulation and Guidance in the EU

In today's environment, stakeholders have high expectations that companies should be run in accordance with good corporate governance practices.

The IBE, in commissioning this report, wished to understand whether there is guidance for companies in governance policies, at national and EU level, on ethical business practices. The IBE wished also to explore whether there are cultural differences or different approaches at a policy level across Europe.

What this report did reveal is that to date, explicit reference to ethical principles has generally been absent from corporate governance guidance and regulation, both at the EU level and within member states, except Belgium and the UK. The report did find similarities in corporate governance requirements around practice and certain issues, but a comparison of explicit ethics drivers was not actually possible.