One of our strategic objectives regarding our Social Charter (defined and approved in March, 2000 and successfully implemented in all our own subsidiaries since then) we took a next step in implementing it at our suppliers:

1. We defined specific questions regarding the adherence to our Social Charter to include them into our existing supplier checklists.

2. We did pilot run with core suppliers of our German subsidiaries in order to test the validity of the questions.

3. Based of the feedback, we adapted the questions which will in a next step be integrated into all supplier checklists worldwide.

4. The implementation process implementation is planned to be finished as per July, 2006.

For 2006, we are planning to run specific social projects, focussing on the support of children - either the children of our employees (e.g. scholarships) or children of the community where our subsidiaries are located ( in particular India, Indonesia, Colombia, Perun).

The next COP will be submitted as per December 2006