The Commission published today a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to support stakeholders in the implementation of the EU corporate sustainability reporting rules. The publication is part of the Commission’s continuous effort to make the EU sustainable finance framework more usable for companies and reduce the administrative burden on them.
The FAQs take into account input received from companies and cover issues such as scope of the rules, application dates, and exemptions. For example, they clarify when companies may use estimates rather than having to collect value chain information from suppliers or partners.
Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness, said:
“The EU has taken major steps in building a comprehensive sustainable finance framework over the past six years, encouraging companies to embark on their transition paths. Our focus now is to ensure that our tools are usable and effective, while continuing to reduce the administrative burden on companies. The FAQs provide important clarifications and will further reduce the need for companies to seek external legal or consultancy advice for applying the rules. Companies are working hard to be more sustainable, which helps strengthen their competitiveness in the medium term, and I aim to ensure that our framework assists them in that process”.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is a cornerstone of the EU’s sustainability agenda and the European Green Deal. It has modernised and strengthened the rules about the social and environmental information that companies have to report. The Directive entered into force on 5 January 2023. The first set of companies subject to the new rules must start reporting in 2025, for the financial year 2024.