Sustainability: Governance and Reporting

Elia Group wants to establish trusting relationships with its stakeholders. Different bodies have been created so that our corporate governance practices are of the highest standards. You can find out more about these on the management bodies webpage. To find out more about our Corporate Governance, you can consult the corporate governance webpage. Moreover, we want to:

• Adopt international, best practice approaches to serve the long-term interests of our stakeholders. Our executive management team and their supervisory functions are therefore separate from our board members (who are elected) and our audit and remuneration committees on the supervisory board.
• Adopt a strategic perspective on sustainability through the establishment of long-term ambitions. Executive salaries are therefore tied to the Group’s performance in terms of sustainability targets.
• Have effective internal controls and external audits in place which lead to prompt actions. We want to have corporate governance practices firmly embedded in our organisational structure, to ensure that the appropriate codes and standards are applied.

ESG Governance Index

Good governance is essential for ensuring our sustainable success in the long term . In addition to designing clear objectives regarding ethics and transparency, an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) index was created to help us embed ESG factors into our business activities and decision-making processes, including the variable remuneration of our workforce. 

The ESG Governance Index consists of the following commitments:

To ensure that sustainability remains one of our key areas of focus and is considered in all of our decision-making, we have to foster a sustainable mindset and set of behaviours. We therefore want to:

• Define clear expected behaviours for our staff, with no tolerance for ethical breaches. Integrity and ethics are a key to our interactions. Through our Code of Ethics, we have defined what is considered to be proper ethical behaviour and have established a set of principles in order to avoid ethical breaches and conflicts of interest.
• Create a culture of speaking out and simple procedures. Through the internal culture programme, Elia Group has defined six behaviours that all employees should embody and demonstrate in their work. You can find more information about these in our annual report.
• Remain independent from any political or religious activities.
• Demonstrate the highest level of integrity towards our contractors and suppliers. Elia Group assumes responsibility for compliance with social standards across the supply chain. For this reason, Elia and 50Hertz are not only members of the United Nations Global Compact, but are also committed to the core labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Elia Group's Code of Ethics includes values, standards and rules that we wish to respect in the relationship with our stakeholders: customers, suppliers, shareholders, the community and our employees.

Elia Group has strict requirements for frankness, integrity and applies a zero tolerance against unlawful acts. In line with the EU whistleblowing directive, Elia Group has set up a whistleblower reporting tool: EthicsAlert. This tool can be used to notify the company, anonymously or not, of any violation of any applicable laws and regulations or of the Elia Group Code of Ethics.

Elia Group is committed to take all cases of integrity violations seriously.

How it works?

For whom?

• Stakeholders who acquired information a work-related context, such as trainees, (former) employees, job candidates, self-employed, (sub)contractors, customers, suppliers etc.

What?

• Violations of integrity of applicable legislation regarding:
  • public procurement;
  • protection of the environment;
  • public health;
  • consumer protection;
  • protection of privacy and personal data and security of network and information systems;
  • tax and social fraud;
  • Competition Law.
• All possible violations of professional elements of the Elia Group Code of Ethics and its derived policies

A full list is available in Elia Group’s Whistleblowing Policy.

How?

(Anonymously) via reporting mechanism EthicsAlert

What guarantees do I receive?

• Professional treatment of each notification made via EthicsAlert
  Every report made will be handled seriously and within a reasonable timeframe.
• Confidentiality
  All notifications are treated with full discretion and people responsible of treatment are bound to secrecy.
• Non-Retaliation
  Reporters of notifications are protected from sanctions and/or unfair treatment as a result of reporting an issue.

Due to their legal status as electricity transmission system operators, Elia and 50Hertz are subject to a wide range of legal and regulatory rules in their respective countries. In order to ensure we conform to external and internal rules, we:

• Ensure that we are compliant with all relevant regulatory and internal provisions.
• Prevent any kind of fraud or abuse. We regularly provide all employees involved in procurement and financial processes with training on the basics of procurement, anti-corruption and compliant behaviour. Since 2018, Elia has had a policy in place that regulates the external reporting point for business integrity breaches (this is carried out via an external whistleblowing system). If internal staff and external stakeholders anonymously report suspected integrity violations, an internal committee is immediately convened to deal with the case and take further internal action if necessary. The committee reports to Elia’s management team annually and also on an ad hoc basis, as issues arise. No violation of any law, whether internal or external, is tolerated; all such violations are firmly sanctioned.
• Detect compliance issues at an early stage and implement prompt corrective actions. Elia Group has drawn up an Engagement Programme which was approved by the Corporate Governance Committee. Any violations of our company codes can be reported to the Compliance Officer, who handles them in an objective and confidential manner. The Compliance Officer reports to the relevant regulatory bodies on an annual basis.

Compliance Index

Next to the ESG governance index, a compliance index, which guides us in introducing the right measures to ensure compliance with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements, was created. The index consolidates key requirements needed to ensure that we are not only compliant with all relevant regulatory requirements  but also prevent any kind of fraud or abuse, detect compliance issues at an early stage, and implement prompt corrective actions.

The Compliance Index consists of the following commitments:

Both indexes are forward-looking and composed of twelve commitments we want to achieve in the coming years. We consider improving our governance and compliance a running target on challenges that will evolve over time. Thereby, we make sure that we always aspire to the highest standards.

We have always been focused on being open and transparent. As a result, we continuously develop our external reporting processes and will continue to do so, in order to better reflect the positive impacts and contributions we make to society, in line with our important societal role. To this end, we have decided to:

• Provide full, fair, accurate, timely, understandable useful information. To this end, we have a transparency management team and we are compliant with data publication requirements. We are also listed on the EU transparency register.
• Carry out our reporting in accordance with recognised international standards. We currently use the GRI Standards for our annual reporting and aim to further-develop our approach in line with international best-practice.
• Proactively communicate with our stakeholders. When considering all grid extension projects, we prioritise informing, listening and having constructive conversations with the residents impacted by our infrastructure. To find out more, visit our stakeholder webpage.

Bribery & corruption

As part of our Code of Ethics, we produced a policy regarding bribery and corruption. The Code of Ethics outlines what we understand by bribery and corruption. The Code of Ethics explicitly states that Elia Group prohibits bribery in any form, alongside abuses of advance knowledge and market manipulation. Elia Group and its employees do not accept gifts or hospitality to gain competitive advantage. Elia Group does not allow facilitation payments. Disguising gifts or hospitality as charitable donations is also a violation of our Code of Ethics. Elia also focuses on capacity building for our employees. Training allows our employees to recognise behaviours or incidents where bribery or corruption may be at play, and provides them with information about how to access the safe, anonymous space set up to report any such matter (via our whistleblower programme).