Recital 50

(50) Users need information about governance factors. Governance factors that are most relevant to users are listed by authoritative reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, as well as by authoritative global frameworks such as the Global Governance Principles of the International Corporate Governance Network and the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. Sustainability reporting standards should specify the information that undertakings should disclose on governance factors. Such information should cover the role of an undertaking’s administrative, management and supervisory bodies with regard to sustainability matters, the expertise and skills needed to fulfil that role or the access such bodies have to such expertise and skills, whether the company has a policy in terms of incentives which are offered to members of those bodies and which are linked to sustainability matters, and information on an undertaking’s internal control and risk management systems in relation to the sustainability reporting process. Users also need information about undertakings’ corporate culture and approach to business ethics, which are recognised elements of authoritative frameworks on corporate governance, such as the Global Governance Principles of the International Corporate Governance Network, including information about anti-corruption and anti-bribery, and about the undertaking’s activities and commitments aimed at exerting its political influence, including its lobbying activities. Information about the management of the undertaking and the quality of relationships with customers, suppliers and communities affected by the activities of the undertaking, helps users to understand an undertaking’s risks and impacts related to sustainability matters. Information about relationships with suppliers includes payment practices relating to the date or period for payment, the rate of interest for late payment or the compensation for recovery costs referred to in Directive 2011/7/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (31). Every year, thousands of businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), suffer an administrative and financial burden because they are paid late, or not at all. Ultimately, late payments lead to insolvency and bankruptcy, with destructive effects on entire value chains. Increasing the amount of information about payment practices should empower other undertakings to identify prompt and reliable payers, detect unfair payment practices, access information about the businesses they trade with, and negotiate fairer payment terms.

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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.