Article: Report on Elverding Conference 2023 on Enhancing Sustainable Business and Corporate Regulation in the EU

On 26 October 2023, the Elverding Conference on Enhancing sustainable business and corporate regulation in the EU took place at the Maastricht University Faculty of Law. The conference was organized to discuss the company law-related efforts aiming to address the significant sustainability challenges that Europe is facing. The first session examined effective and sustainable approaches to active ownership. In it, Prof. Cools shared her perspectives on whether shareholder activism can be a driver of sustainability, and Prof. Bauer built upon this topic by discussing various strategies of active ownership and their impact on sustainability. The second session focused on the alignment between directors' duties and the social role of corporations. Prof. Davies explained why a change of corporate purpose, as advocated by Mayer in Prosperity, would not be enough to change the nature of doing business. Prof. Winter then followed up with his presentation emphasizing the urgent need to address societal problems through channels other than just government regulation. The third and last session invited representatives from companies, the investor community, and civil society to discuss sustainable business practices. This report provides an overview of the discussions held during the first two sessions of the conference, highlighting the main arguments presented by the speakers and their relevance to the ongoing discourse on sustainable company law. sustainability, ESG, shareholder activism, active ownership, corporate purpose, sustainable business, Green Deal