Easily condemned …

It is easy to condemn the Brits for exiting – though it had been only part of them anyway. But is also easy that one overlooks the fundamental flaws of the formation to which they are turning the back. While writing on CSR, i.e. Corporate Social Responsibility, I found this definition on the Commission’s website:

What is CSR?

The Commission has defined CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society. CSR should be company led. Public authorities can play a supporting role through a smart mix of voluntary policy measures and, where necessary, complementary regulation.

Companies can become socially responsible by:

• following the law;

• integrating social, environmental, ethical, consumer, and human rights concerns into their business strategy and operations.

So, the European Union is a place where respecting the law is not an obligation, but a “bonus”?

There is surely much that the “remainers” have to think about in more serious terms: not the lack of legitimacy but the lack of legitime claims of being a legitimate integrative and integrating force.

There may be something to be learned from two contributions I wrote a while back:

• Crisis and no end? Re-embedding economy into life and nature
• Das europäische Sozialmodell – Chimäre oder Kern der EU?

… It is easy to chastise the children, and it likely to forget the failure of the parents …