Accountancy Europe issues letter to European Commissioner on European Sustainability Standards
28 April 2022
Accountancy Europe, the body representing 50 professional organisations in Europe, has issued a letter to Commissioner Mairead McGuinness of the European Commission, expressing concerns about the EU’s plan to introduce European-specific sustainability standards.
The letter states:
|
To be effective, reporting needs to capture information measuring what really matters. It will then enable the transition to circular and sustainable business models, and direct investment towards sustainable businesses. For this to happen, standards need to be easy to understand and apply. Too complex or burdensome reporting systems risk generating unhelpful pushback and slowing down adoption.
As they stand, the ESRS WP appear very prescriptive and include hundreds of datapoints. They oblige to perform lengthy materiality assessments and may drive companies to adopt a checklist approach rather than a sustainability-driven one.
|
The letter also emphasises the importance of global alignment in sustainability standards, including the use of the ISSB’s standards as a global baseline for reporting sustainability information.
The full letter may be accessed here.