The working group will hold two annual meetings (in February and October) with the aim of coordinating the campaigns of both the ITUC Global Union’s Committee on Workers’ Capital (CWC) and the PRI, as well as developing Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) strategies and policies.

The group of signatories is very heterogeneous and includes funds with very diverse assets - from small funds with 10 million EUR in assets to the largest funds in the country with several thousand million EUR in assets - which demonstrates that it is possible to implement SRI policies in funds of all sizes. The meeting was attended by Antonio Santoro, head of the PRI in Southern Europe, who presented the Data Portal Tool through which annual reports and PRI evaluation reports of asset managers can be requested. The PRI and CCOO encourage asset owners to request reports from asset managers through this portal.

The second part of the session was an internal working group meeting in which campaigns coordinated with the CWC were presented. These consisted of a series of public consultations with the European Union (EU), the European Authority of Securities and Markets (ESMA), the International Organization of Pension Supervisors (IOPS) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

It was also proposed that the CCOO conduct an assessment of the SRI approaches of the largest pension fund asset managers in the country. The analysis will be accompanied by engagements or dialogues with the asset managers in order to strengthen their SRI performance in areas identified by the research. This initiative will be coordinated with the asset manager research and engagement campaign that is being carried out by the CWC at the global level.

The key campaigns in which PRI signatory pension funds participated most relevant to trade unions were highlighted, such as the renewal of the Bangladesh Agreement, the defense of workers’ rights in Amazon.com and the inclusion of just transition in the fight against climate change. In 2019, PRI signatory funds also participated in the public consultations held by ESMA and the European Union on the taxonomy of sustainable financial products included in the EU action plan on sustainable finance (already closed).

Finally, attendees were reminded that the annual CWC event will be held in September in Paris. This event is of special interest as it brings together union representatives in national and international confederations and federations, as well as union representatives in complementary social welfare organizations.

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