ACCREDITATION AND APPROVAL OF INDEPENDENT ASSURANCE SERVICES PROVIDERS (IASPS)

Commission Notice on the interpretation of certain legal provisions in Directive 2013/34/EU (Accounting Directive), Directive 2006/43/EC (Audit Directive), Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 (Audit Regulation), Directive 2004/109/EC (Transparency Directive), Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 (first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards, ‘first ESRS delegated act’), and Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation, ‘SFDR’) as regards sustainability reporting · European Union

60) Can natural persons be accredited as Independent Assurance Services Providers (IASPs)? Yes. Article 2 point (23) of the Audit Directive and Article 2 point (20) of the Accounting Directive define IASPs as ‘ a conformity assessment body accredited in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council for the specific conformity assessment activity referred to in point (aa) of the second subparagraph of Article 34(1) of Directive 2013/34/EU ’. Regulation No 765/2008 also defines the conformity assessment body as ‘ a body that performs conformity assessment activities including calibration, testing, certification and inspection ’. While Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 only refers to the accreditation of bodies, it is to be recalled that IASPs are not within the intended scope of that Regulation. The term ‘ body ’ should be read as to include the case of natural persons to ensure a level playing field between IASPs and statutory auditors. 61) IASPs established in a Member State can carry out the assurance of sustainability reporting in that territory, provided that they are subject to requirements equivalent to those set out in the Audit Directive. Does the equivalence of the requirements need to cover also Article 3a of the Audit Directive? Article 34(4) of the Accounting Directive requires IASPs to comply with requirements equivalent to the ones in the Audit Directive for them to be able to carry out sustainability assurance. These requirements include the non-exhaustive list set out in Article 34(4) of the Accounting Directive and an equivalence assessment with the assurance of sustainability reporting as defined in Article 2, point (22) of the Audit Directive. To ensure the level playing field between IASPs and statutory auditors, IASPs should also comply with registration requirements equivalent to those set out in Article 3a of the Audit Directive.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07