Afep-DAI letter to Ms. McGuinness on the
standardisation of EU sustainability reporting

AFEP and Deutsches Aktieninstitut member companies are highly concerned about the working documents released so far by EFRAG’s Project Task Force on European Sustainability Reporting Standards (PTF-ESRS), which could jeopardise the efficiency and the usefulness of the future EU standards. They call for significant simplification, prioritisation of the most urgent issues (climate), the need to take into account the international work carried out within the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board) for the sake of harmonisation, and call for sufficient consultation periods, of at least 120 days.

AFEP and DAI member companies are strongly committed to adopt sustainability strategies to transition to a low-carbon economy. Based on this experience, they call on the Commission to take into account several points in the development of European standards for sustainability reporting:

  • Overly complex EU standards will jeopardise their effectiveness and the information quality for users
  • Overly detailed EU standards will put EU companies’ competitivity at stake
  • Taking the international dimension into account is crucial and indispensable

Focusing on most urgent issues is needed (notably climate)