Beyond the GAAP – March 2023

With the first requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) coming into effect from 1 January 2024, some questions have arisen in the short term regarding the content of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) that companies must apply in this context. The European Commission (EC) has recently stated that it plans to reduce the reporting burden on companies by 25% by the autumn. This covers all reporting, not solely sustainability information, but no further details have been provided as yet on how this will be achieved.

The EC followed up this announcement by asking its technical adviser, EFRAG, to focus on implementation of ESRS Set 1, i.e. the 12 sector-agnostic standards which were published in draft form last November, with the final version scheduled for June. In this context, EFRAG has confirmed that it is ready to revise its timetable for development of subsequent Sets (sector-specific standards and standards applicable by SMEs) and to rapidly put in place a support framework for implementation of the first set of ESRS.