Stakeholder engagement is a vital part of any effective CSR strategy. Fortis maintains contacts with a wide group of stakeholders, central among whom are our customers, employees and shareholders. Building relationships with these, our most directly involved stakeholders is a core process within our organisation and one that is crucial to our success. We also interact with a broad range of stakeholders in society, including regulators, government, industry associations, unions, NGOs and local communities.

In principle, we are happy to engage with all parties that have a genuine interest in our organisation. At the same time, however, it is important for us to examine and define the boundaries of our responsibility. We are neither willing nor able, for instance, to act as a proxy for governments or regulators and we conduct our stakeholder contacts accordingly. Through dialogue, we aim to maintain and build our relationships and to cultivate mutual respect. Discussions with NGOs can be especially interesting when they tackle issues that impact our core businesses. That helps keep us on our toes and encourages us to go on optimising our services.

For a review of our dialogues with NGOs in the most recent financial year, please refer to our annual CSR report 2007.