On 21 June, the Council and the European Parliament (EP) reached a political agreement on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
In the press conference held the day after, rapporteur Pascal Durand (Renew Europe/France) and Commissioner McGuinness presented the outcome of the CSRD final negotiations. Commissioner McGuinness highlighted that this agreement is a major step as financial and sustainability information would be put on an equal footing for the first time in the EU and beyond. As she mentioned, it is key that sustainability reporting standards must be verified.
On 29 June, the EU ambassadors approved the political agreement. The EP Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee is expected to vote on the provisional agreement on 14 July.
In short, some of the main changes the agreement brings:
In June, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) continued with its outreach campaign holding a total of 7 geographical outreach events and 3 educational sessions. These were held jointly with stakeholders and financial institutions from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, the Nordic countries, Austria, Poland. Outreach will continue until mid-July with eight more events scheduled. The recordings of the sessions are available on EFRAG’s website.
With the EU co-legislators reaching a political agreement on the CSRD proposal, EFRAG became officially the technical advisor in sustainability reporting to the EC. EFRAG published a statement welcoming the confirmation of its role.
The EP’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Committee held a joint vote on a motion for resolution objecting to the EC’s complementary Delegated Act (DA). The DA proposes including nuclear energy and fossil gas in the EU Taxonomy as transitional activities. MEPs objected with 76 votes in favour, 62 against and 4 abstentions. Plenary vote on the resolution is scheduled on 6 July. The EP and Council have until 11 July to veto the DA.
The Council has agreed its position on the European Single Access Point (ESAP) proposal. The proposal aims to improve public access to entities’ financial and non-financial information.
ESAP platform will contain already established types of data, as well as publicly available information, including:
The European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Consultative Working Group (WG) on sustainable finance consists of 26 members selected for a two-year renewable term. The WG was established under the Coordination Network on sustainability with a mandate to:
ESMA published a letter to the EC presenting its findings from the call for evidence on ESG ratings to gather information on the market structure for ESG ratings providers in the EU. ESMA identified 59 ESG rating providers currently active in the EU. The findings indicate:
The European Banking Federation (EBF) published its views on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) asking for more clarity on:
They also oppose the inclusion of civil liability.
In its June meeting, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) decided to develop a sustainability assurance standard based on ISAE 3000, covering both limited and reasonable assurance.
The IAASB agreed on preparing a project proposal draft by the end of 2022 and issuing an Exposure Draft by the second half of 2023.
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is now able to operate and reach decisions as it reaches quorum with its two new board members appointments: Jeffrey Hales and Michael Jantzi. The remaining 6 members are expected to be appointed during the third quarter of 2022.
The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provided an update on the development of their memorandum of understanding (MoU) announced in March. They agreed on carrying out joint mapping and comparison exercises as well as developing a methodology to cross-reference between the ISSB and GRI standards.
The IFRS Foundation Trustees voted the approval of the consolidation with the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) as from 1 July 2022. However, the consolidation is delayed and is now expected to be completed by 1 August (originally 1 July).
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the business management consultancy Profit Impact published free toolkits that offer concise practical ways for micro, small and medium enterprises to start their sustainability journey. The toolkits cover:
Read moreThis curated content was brought to you by Vita Ramanauskaité, Accountancy Europe senior policy advisor since 2015. You can send her tips by email, follow her on Twitter and connect with her on LinkedIn.
