The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) proposal stipulates that EFRAG should be responsible for carrying out a due process to draft, consult and deliver EU sustainability standards for adoption by the European Commission. On 1 March, the EFRAG General Assembly appointed the members of the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board, which will be responsible for all sustainability reporting positions of EFRAG, including technical advice to the European Commission on draft EU Sustainability Reporting Standards and related amendments.
The Board is composed of European stakeholders, national organisations, and civil society. Filip Gregor, Head of the Responsible Companies Section at Frank Bold, has been appointed as one of the two NGO representatives of the EFRAG Civil Society Chapter, alongside another member of the Alliance for Corporate Transparency, David Vermijs from Shift. Joanne Houston, EU Policy Officer at Frank Bold, has been selected to be part of the Technical Expert Group recently announced.
Filip Gregor’s engagement builds on his current participation in the secretariat of Project Task Force on European sustainability reporting standards. As EFRAG progresses towards the establishment of its permanent sustainability reporting pillar alongside its existing financial one, Filip’s work on EU standards will continue as a member of the newly formed Sustainability Reporting Board, contributing to the continuity of EFRAG’s standard-setting work.
The EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board does not rely solely on broad stakeholder representation; it also ensures the adoption of well-informed positions. The EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board will take decisions after having considered the advice of the Sustainability Reporting Technical Expert Group (TEG) of EFRAG and the results of EFRAG’s due process. The EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board together with the EFRAG Financial Reporting Board will work to ensure connectivity between financial and sustainability reporting.
All of EFRAG’s draft and final sustainability reporting due process documents will be issued under the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board’s authority.
New reporting rules require certain large EU companies to include in their management report a non-financial statement. These companies need to begin gathering and auditing information in order to be prepared to publish the required information within good time after the end of the 2017 financial year. Frank Bold recently published a short guide on the Non Financial Reporting Directive that identifies who will be affected and explains how to comply with the new reporting requirements.
On September 28, Frank Bold will hold the Creating Sustainable Companies Summit gathering leading thinkers, businesses, policymakers and civil society in Brussels to chart the way to the next generation of corporations and future of corporate governance.
The Brussels office of the public interest law firm Frank Bold is currently recruiting a Legal Research Intern to start immediately full-time, for a period of two months, with the possibility of a four-month extension.
