Recital 37

(37) Undertakings that fall under the scope of Article 19a(1) and Article 29a(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU may rely on national, Union-based or international reporting frameworks, and where they do so, they have to specify which frameworks they have relied upon. However, Directive 2013/34/EU does not require undertakings to use a common reporting framework or standard, and it does not prevent undertakings from choosing not to use any reporting framework or standards at all. As required by Article 2 of Directive 2014/95/EU, on 5 July 2017, the Commission adopted a Communication entitled ‘Guidelines on non-financial reporting (methodology for reporting non-financial information)’ (‘Guidelines on non-financial reporting’), providing for non-binding guidelines for undertakings that fall under the scope of that Directive. On 17 June 2019, the Commission adopted its Guidelines on reporting climate-related information, containing additional guidelines, specifically on reporting climate-related information. Those Guidelines on reporting climate-related information explicitly incorporated the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Available evidence indicates that the Guidelines on non-financial reporting did not have a significant impact on the quality of non-financial reporting by undertakings under the scope of Articles 19a and 29a of Directive 2013/34/EU. The voluntary nature of the guidelines means that undertakings are free to decide whether to apply them or not. The guidelines can therefore not ensure on their own the comparability of the information disclosed by different undertakings, or the disclosure of all information that users of that information consider relevant. That is why there is a need for mandatory common sustainability reporting standards to ensure that information is comparable and that all relevant information is disclosed. Building on the double materiality principle, standards should cover all information that is material to users of that information. Common sustainability reporting standards are also necessary to enable the assurance and digitalisation of sustainability reporting and to facilitate its supervision and enforcement. The development of mandatory common sustainability reporting standards is necessary to reach a situation in which sustainability information has a status comparable to that of financial information. The adoption of sustainability reporting standards by means of delegated acts would ensure harmonised sustainability reporting across the Union. Therefore, an undertaking would be compliant with the sustainability reporting requirements of Directive 2013/34/EU by reporting in accordance with the sustainability reporting standards. When defining such standards, it is essential to give due consideration, to the greatest extent possible, to the main sustainability reporting standards used worldwide, while not lowering the ambition of this amending Directive and delegated acts adopted pursuant thereto.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-08-27 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.