Sustainable Corporate Governance: French Experience

The traditional, shareholder-oriented model of corporate governance in modern France is recognized as partially outdated and significantly modernized, due to its failure to meet the growing demands of an increasingly demanding society and the realities of the time. In the new model, governance horizons are expanded beyond shareholder value in favor of the social, environmental, and, more recently, political (participation in sanctions) ambitions of corporations. From «a means of reconciling business and society», sustainable corporate governance has become one of the drivers for the development of the social economy, the implementation of sustainable management goals and the ESG agenda. New goals are now enshrined in company missions, recognized by the state and regulated by soft and, indirectly, corporate law. Modern French corporate law makes it possible for any business company to supplement its charter with the interests of the local community, humanitarian, environmental and other socially useful guidelines that are not limited to the interests of shareholders, which corresponds to the concept of a social market economy.