PRESS BRIEFING ON ‘GLOBAL COMPACT – ITALIA’

Press Briefing on ‘global compact – italia’

As the Global Compact Leaders Summit began at Headquarters this morning, the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Italy, Mario Baccini, and the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Juan Somavia, briefed correspondents on the launch of “Global Compact - Italia”, a government-driven initiative aimed at stimulating the membership of small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide in the Global Compact. 

The Summit was described today by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the largest and highest-level gathering of leaders from business, labour and civil society ever held at the United Nations.  The Global Compact, an initiative of the Secretary-General, challenges world business leaders to “embrace and enact” the benefits of global economic development through voluntary corporate policies and actions.  Endorsed by all governments, the Compact sets forth nine guiding principles, which focus on human rights, labour standards and the environment.

In Mr. Baccini’s statement to the Summit, he explained that “Global Compact – Italia” addressed itself not only to multinational corporations, but especially to small- and mid-sized companies, including microcompanies, especially those actively collaborating with business in developing countries or which were interested in doing so. 

He also explained that the initiative’s purpose was to show those businesses that the Compact provided a real possibility of qualitative growth and economic affirmation in the national and international panorama and from a sustainable development perspective.  A key element of the Italian programme was the promotion of the membership of the world’s small- and mid-sized businesses worldwide.

Through an independent interpreter at the press conference, Mr. Baccini said that the Italian initiative was part of his Government’s general effort at global preventive diplomacy.  That had also fit into a programme of debt cancellation in some countries and reconversion in others, aimed at arresting and overcoming the root causes of social and economic tensions, often leading to conflict. 

The launch of “Global Compact - Italia” in Rome on 4 May had been presided over by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy, Franco Frattini, and attended by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Louise Fréchette, together with the ILO.  Representatives of business, and the social and media worlds had also participated in the event.

He said that the Global Compact was a substantial initiative, which represented the Italian Government’s desire for concrete actions.  His Government had wanted to avoid rhetoric and it decided to go one step further.  That would involve reviewing labour policies and encouraging business to be responsible for protecting the more vulnerable strata of society, such as women, children and the elderly and avoid exploitation of products on the market. 

The initiative would begin by addressing itself to the Mediterranean and Balkans region, he said, and it should also act as a catalyst for concrete progress in the Euro-Mediterranean “Barcelona process”.  The initiative also sought to promote shared rules in area of civil rights, fair competition, responsible administration of the financial markets, the development of trade unionism, the regulation of the labour markets, and environmentally friendly economic growth and tourism, among others. 

Many of the partners would be organized under the umbrella of decentralized cooperation, a major innovative component of the Italian initiative, he said.  Eventually, he wanted to extend the initiative to sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as to the small island States. 

He recalled that, during Italy’s semester as President of the European Union, an innovative series of corporate social responsibility indicators had been approved.  They had been presented at a special conference in Venice, which had been attended by the various European Union ministers in charge of welfare.  That new instrument was geared to helping small- and medium-sized businesses to self-monitor the progress they had made in the area of social responsibility. 

His Government would make that instrument available at the Summit today, he said, since that could provide a universally applicable practical guide for all of the small- and medium-sized businesses interested in joining the Compact.  It had also stimulated a kind of social banking system, which ensured that the financial institutions facilitated access to banking services by immigrant communities and that they promoted innovative formulas, particularly microcredit, both in countries of origin and host countries.

Italy had been among the first countries to support the Global Compact with full conviction and a substantial financial commitment, he noted.  But, it must not be forgotten that the initiative’s success would be directly proportionate to the adhesion and support of the entire international community.  Solidarity was not just an ethical factor, but also an economic choice.  He also stressed the need for good governance in the transition from economic policy to political economy. 

Explaining that the Italian Government had entrusted the International Labour Organization (ILO) with implementation of the “Global Compact-Italia”, the Organization’s Director-General, Mr. Somavia, said that that initiative had been a “first” in the sense that that had been the first time a Government had decided to finance and directly support a specific initiative in the Global Compact with the idea of raising awareness. 

Mr. Somavia said that the initiative was innovative in the way it supported and promoted the Global Compact as an instrument of economic growth and sustainable development, not only in Italy, but also in developing countries.  He reiterated that the initiative was not addressed to multinationals, but mainly to small- and medium-sized enterprises.  Everyone knew how much those enterprises represented the social and economic fabric of Italy and shaped its identity.

In developing countries, the idea was to use well known Italian experience and dynamism to share and spread good practice and corporate social responsibility.  The objective was to create networks and spread the results of their activities, he said, adding that he was happy to be a partner with the Italian Government on that, at its request.

Asked if the idea of working with so-called underground enterprises that employed immigrants had also referred to illegal immigrants, Mr. Baccini said that the Global Compact did not make exceptions for “illegals”.  The international community was paying close attention to that, as were the ILO and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as the Italian Government. 

Elaborating on that response, another ILO representative said there was absolutely no question about not protecting the rights of illegal immigrants.  At the same time, however, it was important to realize that in industrialized countries there was a very high risk in the immigrant community of certain prohibited forms of work, such as child labour.

Replying to a question about initiatives in Morocco and Tunisia, another speaker said that plan was to raise the awareness of rights in countries where awareness of social protections was not as great.

Another speaker added that the idea in countries like Morocco and Tunisia was to see how the Global Compact principles could be translated into practice, both internally within companies and in terms of making the investment work, including in connection with the Millennium Development Goals.

Mr. Baccini then responding to a question about the Security Council reform, indicated that a broad debate was ongoing within the Member States of the European Union.  It was true that Germany had its proposal; Italy’s was different and more generally involved the allocation of new permanent seats.

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