Today, the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) endorsed the provisional political agreement on the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD) reached by the European Parliament and the Council on 21 June 2022 based on the proposal of the European Commission published on 21 April 2021.
BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said:
“We share the sustainability objectives pursued but do not believe that over-prescriptive reporting obligations will advance that cause. Companies want to focus on addressing real sustainability issues encountered on the ground, not on writing reports. Excessive reporting obligations discourage investment, including investment to reach sustainability objectives. Enterprises need a strong alignment of sustainability standards globally to avoid a fragmentation of reporting requirements around the world.”
Implementation of the CSRD requires to prepare sustainability reporting standards. These standards should aim at helping companies to provide information that is proportionate, understandable, verifiable and comparable. The EU must avoid further gold plating of sustainability reporting rules, on top of the CSRD, the sustainable finance taxonomy and the proposed directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDD) when developing sustainability reporting standards with the help of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG).
