A1 Stakeholder Engagement Guideline

Guideline for navigating coherent, group-wide stakeholder relationships.

Version 01.00

Date: 29.05.2024

Data Classification: external use

A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

Appendix I : Stakeholder Engagement - Business Unit Mapping

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A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

About the Document

A1 Telekom Austria Group, herein further the 'A1 Group', recognises the critical importance of engaging with its stakeholders to build trust, foster transparency, and drive sustainable business practices.

This Stakeholder Engagement Guideline is aligned with the AA1000 SES 2015 standard and establishes the principles and guidelines that guide our interactions with stakeholders. The company commits to AccountabilityPrinciples as defined by this standard.

This Guideline applies to the entirety of the A1 Group and its subsidiaries.

Document Updates

This document is to be updated on an annual basis. This version of this document has been approved by the Group Management Board and released on May 29th, 2024.

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A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

1. Purpose & Objective of Stakeholder Engagement

The purposeof Stakeholder Engagement, defined by this Guideline, is to:

  • Clearly articulate A1 Group's commitment to stakeholder engagement.
  • Provide a framework for identifying, prioritising, and engaging with stakeholders.
  • Ensure the integration of stakeholder perspectives into decision-making processes.
  • Enhance transparency and accountability in all stakeholder interactions.
  • Connection stakeholder engagement process to the A1 Group strategy, mission, and vision.

In practice, the main purpose of this Guideline and thus of the Stakeholder Engagement process is to provide the framework for the business on how to identify, prevent and mitigate potential and actual negative impacts on the environment and society and to identify risks and opportunities.,

The Guideline is aligned with business standards, such as the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), but also our commitments arising from the 1.5C Paris Agreement.

The Guideline is fundamental in supporting the implementation of double materiality and thus the key element and essential for compliance with the relevant legislation, such as the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

The Guideline supports our ESG governance process, ensuring ongoing sustainability transformation and the company's sustainable performance.

2. Principles

Inclusivity

The A1 Group is committed to engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders representing different perspectives and interests. Inclusivity ensures that the voices of all relevant stakeholders are considered in decision-making processes. Inclusivity ensures that all stakeholders have the right to ask the relevant people at the A1 Group relevant questions in direct or virtual meetings.

Materiality

If the issue is defined as a material, as defined by the CSRD, the company is committed to feeding these topics into the decision-making process.

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A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

Responsiveness

We commit to being responsive to stakeholder concerns and feedback. The A1 Group will strive to address stakeholder expectations promptly and meaningfully, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Accountability

In addition, the A1 Group acknowledges its responsibility to be accountable for the impacts of its operations on stakeholders. This includes communicating transparently about our performance, seeking input on relevant issues, and taking appropriate actions to address stakeholder concerns.

Based on the above principles, the A1 Group shall integrate stakeholder engagement into:

  • Governance, structure, and relevant decision-making processes.
  • Relevant policies and/or processes for strategy development.
  • Operational management and systems.

3. Ownership and Responsibility

The coordinative responsibility associated with stakeholder engagement is placed upon the Head of ESG, who reports to the Group Deputy CEO. At least twice a year, the Head of ESG shall inform the Management Board and the Board of Directors of the state of stakeholder engagement. The bi-annual feedback loop ensures that the questions raised can be addressed and actioned within a year.

The responsibility for individual stakeholder groups, defining the engagement principles, communication, and frequency and intensity of these relationships are part of the departments/stakeholder group owners listed in the Table in Appendix I, deemed the most competent within the organisation to manage these relationships or are already in regular interaction with a specific stakeholder group due to the nature of their activities.

The owners shall establish and follow internal methodologies to further systematically identify the relevant stakeholders to engage with based on the purpose and scope of their engagement. The owners shall identify methods of engagement and appropriate levels of engagement (ways of communication) with each relevant stakeholder group. The responsible departments are shown in Appendix Iof this document and shall be periodically reviewed and updated. The relationship with the individual stakeholder groups, as well as the level and method of engagement, are described in Section 4 of this document. The owners shall regularly inform the Head of ESG of the engagement plans, progress, and challenges, in the process of the Quarterly ESG Steering.

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A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

4. Stakeholder Identification and Prioritization

The A1 Group will identify and prioritise stakeholders based on their potential impact on, or interest in, our operations. The impact/interest assessment of stakeholders (on group and local levels) is an ongoing process, ensuring that we engage with those who can contribute valuable insights and are affected by our activities. The identification of key stakeholders happens in consultation with the specialist departments involved and the results of materiality analysis.

The CSRD requires companies to ensure relevant stakeholders are consulted in the process of defining and understanding company material topics through the application of double materiality. The double materiality analyses both the impacts of A1 Group activities on people and the environment, but also on how sustainability matters affect the Group (Risks/Opportunities). More details on double materiality are given in Chapter 5.1 (Double Materiality Assessment).

4.1 Stakeholder Groups

In the following chapter, we have defined the main stakeholder groups that are managed both on the Group and on the individual OpCo (local) levels. We are committed, wherever appropriate, to consult the local stakeholders which is enabled by detailed reviews of stakeholder groups, as described below.

Employees

As a stakeholder group, we recognise Current Employees and Future/Potential Employees. The communication with our Employees is intense and versatile - aiming to inform and involve our employees in company activities, and includes communication via the Workplace, intranet, email, SharePoint, face-to-face meetings, employee surveys and events (such as the Women @A1 festival). With future/potential employees, communication is mostly unilateral, via career fairs, employer rating platforms, career websites, job portals or conferences. The Group HR is lead on employee relations, with a clear focus on maintaining an image of a good employer, positioning A1 as an employer of choice, and ensuring thus talent attraction and retention. Local HR maintain the relationship on a local level, governed by the group strategy and ensures to regularly convey the views and interests of employees in respective OpCos to the group.

Works council

The stakeholder group includes the Local Workers Council and the European Works Council (EWC). Responsible people for the local workers' council are A1 employees, who are elected members of each respective OpCo, and are also elected members of the EWC. Internally, the responsibility for the relationship with the workers' council is maintained by the HR department. The relationship with the A1 Group is bilateral, both bottom-upand top-down.Common communication methods include e-mails,MS Teams calls and video conferences, as well as personal discussions with the Group Management Board (MB), where the communication is more intense on the local than on the group level. The workers' council is represented in SVB of the A1 Group and discusses the future strategy and contributes to the design of the

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A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

strategy/mission/vision of the group. The workers' council negotiates with the MB on behalf of the employees and is empowered to play a role in shaping the group agenda.

Customers

The customers are the core and foundation of our business and a crucial part of our company's success. We split the stakeholder group customers into B2C and B2B groups, where the B2B group can further be split into B2B Large Enterprise (LE)1 and B2B Medium Enterprises and Small Business Sales (SME). The overall responsibility for the B2B relationship is entrusted to the Business Unit Enterprise division (represented on a local level), while the responsibility for the B2C relationship sits within the Business Transformation and Acceleration unit. In both cases, initial ownership and contact as well as the first line of communication is entrusted to the Sales. The B2X communication is mostly unilateral and informative, driven by customer requests, and includes emails, contact forms, and deep dive calls. Communication is also transactional and partnership-focused. The communication with this stakeholder can also include exchanges or B2C events that might take place with local A1 divisions.

Financial Community

By Financial Community we mean informative relationships with Investors, such as Institutional and Retail Investors, but also Analysts and Financial Media. The relationship between the Financial Community and the A1 Group is vested in the Group Investor Relations department, where the interaction includes publications and information sharing via website, emails, calls, roadshows, in-person meetings and video calls.

Suppliers

The suppliers/vendors are our business partners, who are an important part of our business success. The vendors can be roughly split into Strategic vendors, Medium and Small vendors. Distributors are included in this general grouping. Responsible for the supplier relationship is the Purchasing Department (Group and OpCo), however, business units in the group and in OpCos maintain direct contact with vendors and have an independent relationship. Relationship with suppliers is described in detail in the Group Policy on Responsible Sourcing. Relationship with suppliers is a limited two-way engagement, i.e. negotiations, but is also of informative nature. The relationship is maintained through calls, and emails, as well as personal meetings and events.

Workers in the Value Chain

Workers in the Value Chain are a special interest group, where A1 has indirect involvement and is mostly passive. We advocate for the well-being of this group, alone and within industry associations, such as JAC. We audit the premises of high-risk factories, which includes the workers' interviews. All concerns are mapped in the Corrective Action Plan (CAP) and A1 Group works on their resolution, in favour of the workers. We encourage workers in the value chain to voice their concerns via the A1 Group website (tell.meplatform - also mentioned within this communication). The responsible for the relationship with this group is the Head of Compliance.

1 This group would also include PSHC companies such as for example hospitals, ministry, communities.

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A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

Media

Under the stakeholder group Media, we assume on the one hand the ongoing communication with the Journalists, such as Editors-in-Chief and Content writers, as well as the relationship with Publishers and publishing houses. The Corporate Communications department holistically maintains the relationship. The interaction with this stakeholder is informative and includes press conferences, personal meetings, one-on-ones, visits, calls and video calls as well as events & spotlight events. On the other hand - where A1 acts as a media company itself - other media outlets can be business partners or customers and interaction adjusts accordingly.

Competitive landscape

Relationships with Industry associations, such as ETIS, ETNO, GSMA, JAC, or NGMS, and Business Associations such as AmCham, are part of the Group's business interactions. Responsibility for these relationships is placed with the Group Director for Regulatory, European and Public Affairs, but also partly with the Group Head of ESG, and ultimately with the Group's C-level. The engagement with this stakeholder is mostly collaborative, with Industry associations, where A1 participates in multi- stakeholder initiatives, joint programs and projects; and informative with Business associations, including conferences, and presentations.

Peers

The relationship with our peers is being upheld through regular exchanges in various formats (industry associations, business associations, bilateral coordination) as part of the Group's business interactions, rigorously abiding by the set legal frameworks - first and foremost competition law - on national and European level. Responsibility lines are as per the above section. The relationship with this stakeholder group is of an informative, exchanging nature.

Government officials & Authorities

The relationship with this stakeholder group is vested with the Group Director for Regulatory, European and Public Affairs. The main means of contact are in-person meetings, such as events, stakeholder round tables and in-person meetings, but include also calls, emails and other means of daily communication - thus of an informative and consultative nature, where the group also advocates alone, or within the industry, position over topics of interest. This group includes all affected/local markets the Group operates in.

Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs)

IGOs, such as the United Nations Global Compact (UN GC) are an important stakeholder to the A1 Group and, the Group is, through various initiatives committed to the goals expressed by UNGC. These are mostly bilateral relationships, in which IGOs have an intrinsic interest in private sector organizations, through monitoring of business performance in terms of ESG. On the business side, the A1 Group looks to be aligned with the most important IGOs and their standards. The main responsible for the relationship is the Group Head of ESG. Communication consists of reporting, events, initiatives, and seminars and is of informative and collaborative nature.

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A1 Group Stakeholder Engagement Guideline - May 2024

Local Community

All aforementioned stakeholders include the involvement of local groups and voices as appropriate. We have, however, separated the Local Community as a special stakeholder group in 3 special interest topics: 1) Infrastructure, H&S and EMF; 2) Digital awareness, training & education; 3) Environmental and social care and community wellbeing. The views of these 3 subgroups are regularly considered in our process.

On the topics of Infrastructure, Health, Safety and EMF, our engagement is of an informative type and initiated upon the request of customers/communities, where this individual stakeholder (sometimes also a group) often shares their views through letters, protests and media, and A1 actively approaches each concern, individually or through industry associations, such as FMK (Forum MobilKommunikation). The relationship is vested in the EMF department with the support of Media and Regulatory Affairs.

When it comes to A1 and its relationship to the digital divide, we provide training and workshops to targeted groups (children, youth and educators, women, and senior citizens) in an informative way, collaborating with accredited partners. Typically, the local ESG staff governs the relationship with these groups.

Care for the environmental and social well-being of the communities we operate in is important for A1 Group and is managed through the marketing and communication teams, in regular communication with the Head of ESG. The representatives of this group are usually the Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs). This relationship is mostly of an informative type.

4.2 Stakeholder Matrix

To identify relevant stakeholders and understand how to engage with each relevant group, we have developed and used an internal Interest/Influence Matrix. The main components of the interest pillar are interest, tensions, and diverse perspectives of stakeholders. The main attributes of the influence pillar are influence, dependency, and responsibility. Based on the results of the matrix, we have then classified the stakeholders based on the relevant and most applicable communications strategy/engagement level and thus relevant engagement model: inform, consult, and collaborate.

5. Engagement Process

The A1 Group works actively and cooperatively with a wide range of stakeholders. The most relevant stakeholder groups are identified in Appendix I.

Stakeholder engagement will be conducted through various channels, such as surveys, consultations, partnerships, and dialogue sessions. We will tailor engagement approaches based on the nature of the stakeholder and the issues at hand.

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Disclaimer

Telekom Austria AG published this content on 03 June 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 03 June 2024 09:05:01 UTC.