Due Process Procedures for Sustainability Reporting Standard-Setting
The European Commission's proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive envisages the adoption of EU sustainability reporting standards (ESRS). In this context, EFRAG is requested to provide Technical Advice to the European Commission in the form of fully prepared draft standards and/ or draft amendments to Sustainability Reporting Standards.
In a letter dated 12 May 2021, Commissioner McGuinness invited EFRAG to launch as soon as possible the necessary technical work to develop draft sustainability reporting standards consistent with requirements set out in the European Commission’s proposal in parallel with the legislative process. The Commissioner specifically asked to foreshadow the governance reform and processes to ensure transparency and due process in the standard-setting process from the beginning. The interim steps should be taken in a pragmatic spirit to allow work to start as quickly as possible, with an appropriate handover to the EFRAG revised governance structure at the earliest opportunity.
Public consultation
In this context, EFRAG issued public consultation on proposed Due Process Procedures (DPP) stipulating he requirements to be followed in its role as technical advisor to the European Commission in the preparation of draft ESRS in June 2021. The public consultation paper was open for comments unitl 15 September 2021.
On 22 November 2021, EFRAG published today aggregation of the comments received in a summary report together
with messages from the EFRAG Board President, Jean Paul Gauzès,
addressing the due process during the interim work, the transition to the
new governance structure, the due process of EFRAG’s financial reporting pillar
and the cooperation with global sustainability reporting standard setters and initiatives.
The EFRAG Administrative Board Due Process Committee (DPC) met twice in February and agreed to recommend a draft Due Process Procedures for the DPC which were considered by the EFRAG Administrative Board at its 28 February meeting in a public session (here)
On 15 March 2022, the General Assembly approved the DPP for Sustainability Reporting Standard-Setting. On 22 March 2022, the EFRAG Administrative Board Due Process Committee ('DPC') met to discuss a Feedback Statement on the DPP consultation explaining how the feedback received from the 2021 DPP public consultation had been addressed.
The DPP was initally published on 30 March 2022 on EFRAG website (together with the Feedback Statement) : read the news item and access the documents here.
At its meeting on 16 March 2023, the EFRAG General Assembly approved drafting updates to EFRAG’s DPP to align them with the final provisions contained in the CSRD as published the EU Official Journal on 16 December 2022.
No major changes to the principles underpinning EFRAG’s due process were made, as the published CSRD essentially confirmed the extent of and conditions for EFRAG’s mission as technical advisors to the European Commission .
At the same meeting, the yearly report of the EFRAG Administrative Board on the oversight of the due process over the past period was presented to the EFRAG General Assembly.
Both documents can be accessed in tehs webpage under document/ communication