Adoption of the final European Sustainability Reporting Standards by the European Commission

published on 15 august 2023 | reading time approx. 1 minute

Following the publication of the draft delegated act by the European Commission on June 9, 2023 and a four-week public consultation period, the final European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) were adopted by the Commission on July 31, 2023.

With the publication of the final standards, the legislative process on ESRS is in its final phase. The delegated act on ESRS adopted by the Commission will be sent to the European Parliament and the Council for consideration in the second half of August. The period for consideration is two months and can be extended by another two months. The European Parliament or the Council may reject the delegated act during the examination but may not amend it.

Changes in the final delegated act

The changes in the final delegated act by the European Commission (EC) compared to the drafts published by EFRAG in November 2022 differ significantly in several respects, which have already been explained in our article on the update to the publication of the ESRS.

An important change compared to the drafts published by the EC in June 2023 is that the exclusion of the disclosures in the standard on climate change from the materiality assessment is only possible by publishing a detailed explanation of the conclusions on the assessment of materiality regarding climate change.

Outlook: What happens next?

In order to facilitate the implementation of the CSRD and the associated application of the ESRS for companies, the EC is currently introducing an interpretation mechanism to enable a formal interpretation of the standards.

EFRAG has also been tasked with publishing additional training material and guidance:

Additional non-binding technical guidance on the application of ESRS to be published at regular intervals.
EC proposal to EFRAG to prioritize the development of guidance on materiality assessment and value chain reporting (drafts of both guidance to be published in a timely manner).
A portal for technical questions on the application of ESRS for companies and other stakeholders will be launched by EFRAG shortly.

What is certain is that the final drafts of the ESRS are available in the German version. It remains to be seen how the CSRD will be implemented in German law by July 6, 2024 at the latest.