The revision of the NFRD is necessary to harmonise and standardise sustainability reporting and to end the proliferation of frameworks and standards.
Large French companies have been engaged for many years in putting responsible business conduct at the heart of their strategies and operations. Compared to the other large companies worldwide, they present the highest level of non-financial information, which is verified by independent third parties.
Despite their extensive experience and the lead they have taken, the Commission’s proposal will have a significant impact on their activities.
Large French companies consider that the Directive should:
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- Cover all non-European companies offering goods and services in the EU above a certain threshold of turnover, and not only non-EU companies listed in the EU or large non-EU subsidiaries based in the EU;
- Leave companies free to set appropriate targets according to their sector and activity, and not systematically require them to publish forward-looking information;
- Limit the information requirement on intangibles (human, social, intellectual capitals…) to qualitative information rather than quantitative information;
- Not anticipate the content of the future proposal for a European due diligence which is to be specified in a dedicated future text;
- Ensure the compatibility of the future EU reporting standard with international requirements and its coherence with the existing European legislation on sustainable finance;
- Clarify the requirements on digitalisation, it being specified that only quantitative information can be “tagged” like the IFRS consolidated financial statements;
- Not extend the missions of the audit committee to extra-financial reporting.