EU as regards the time limits for the adoption of sustainability reporting standards for certain sectors and for certain third-country undertakings - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2023)596 - Amendment of Directive 2013/34/EU as regards the time limits for the adoption of sustainability reporting standards for ...
document	COM(2023)596
date	April 29, 2024

(1)Sustainability reporting requirements play a key role in ensuring market transparency and in ensuring that undertakings are accountable for their impacts on people and the environment. However, it is important to streamline those requirements, in order to ensure that they fulfil the purpose for which they were intended and to limit the administrative burden.

(2)Article 29b(1), third subparagraph, of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council 8 requires the Commission to provide for sustainability reporting standards by means of delegated acts by 30 June 2024 specifying the information that undertakings are to report with regard to sustainability matters and the reporting areas specific to the sector in which an undertaking operates, in addition to the information that undertakings are already to provide under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) XX/XXX 9 .

(3)To reduce the reporting burden on undertakings, as set out in the Commission Communication on ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU: looking beyond 2030’ 10 , undertakings should be allowed to focus first on the implementation of sustainability reporting requirements laid down in Delegated Regulation (EU) XX/XXX. For that reason, the time limit for the adoption of the delegated acts containing the complementary sustainability reporting requirements referred to in Article 29b(1), third subparagraph, of Directive 2013/34/EU should be postponed by 2 years.

(4)Article 40b of Directive 2013/34/EU also requires the Commission to adopt, by 30 June 2024, a delegated act to provide for sustainability reporting standards to be used for the disclosure of sustainability information concerning third-country undertakings with a net turnover above EUR 150 million and with either subsidiaries in the Union that are large undertakings or small and medium-sized undertakings with securities admitted to trading in the Union regulated markets, or with branches in the Union with a net turnover above EUR 40 million.

(5)The reporting requirements for certain third-country undertakings only apply as of financial year 2028. Since the time limit for the adoption of the delegated acts containing the complementary sustainability reporting obligations referred to in Article 29b(1), third subparagraph, of Directive 2013/34/EU will be postponed by 2 years, the time limit for the adoption of the sustainability reporting standards for certain third-country undertakings standards should also be postponed by 2 years.

(6)Directive 2013/34/EU should therefore be amended accordingly.