ASSURANCE OF THE SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLES 19a AND 29a ACCOUNTING DIRECTIVE

70) What should the assurance provider express an opinion on, according to Article 34(1) of the Accounting Directive? Under Article 34(1) second subparagraph, point (aa) of the Accounting Directive, any undertaking subject to sustainability reporting under Articles 19a and 29a of the Accounting Directive must obtain an assurance opinion on their sustainability statement. This assurance opinion is based on a limited assurance engagement as regards the compliance of the sustainability statement with the following requirements: — the sustainability reporting requirements provided for in the Accounting Directive (including the compliance of the sustainability reporting with the ESRS adopted pursuant to Articles 29b/29c of the Accounting Directive, the process carried out by the undertaking to identify the information reported pursuant to those ESRS – i.e., the double materiality assessment process, and the compliance with the requirement to mark-up sustainability reporting in accordance with Article 29d of the Accounting Directive); and — the reporting requirements provided for in Article 8 of the Taxonomy Regulation. The assurance providers are expected to perform procedures that enable them to conclude that no matter has come to their attention to cause them to believe that the information included in the sustainability statement is not fairly presented, in all material respects, in accordance with ESRS as adopted by the Union and that it is not compliant with the legal requirements to mark-up sustainability information (i.e., the digital tagging) and with the legal requirements of Article 8 of the Taxonomy Regulation. The first part of the conclusion referring to the fair presentation, in all material respects, in accordance with the ESRS entails an opinion on: — whether the undertaking’s sustainability statement, including the process to identify the information reported (i.e., the double materiality assessment process), are compliant with ESRS; and — whether the outcome of this process has resulted in the disclosure of all material sustainability-related impacts, risks and opportunities of the undertaking in accordance with ESRS. 71) Paragraph 121 ESRS 1 (General requirements) allows the undertaking to incorporate information in its sustainability statement by reference to its report prepared according to EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation (EU) No 1221/2009. This provision is subject to the conditions of paragraph 120, including that the information incorporated by reference is subject to at least the same level of assurance as the sustainability statement. Is the undertaking’s report prepared according to EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation (EU) No 1221/2009 subject to at least the same level of assurance as the sustainability statement? Under Article 34(1) second subparagraph, point (aa) of the Accounting Directive, any undertaking subject to sustainability reporting under Articles 19a and 29a of the Accounting Directive must obtain an assurance opinion based on a limited assurance engagement. The undertaking’s report prepared according to EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation (EU) No 1221/2009 is subject to a validation performed by an environmental verifier and this validation can be considered to be at least at the same level of assurance as the CSRD limited assurance requirement. 72) In the case of two different statutory auditors carrying out the audit of the financial statements and the assurance of the sustainability statement, which one of the two should express the opinion on whether the management report is consistent with the financial statements? Based on Article 34(1), second subparagraph, point (a)(i) of the Accounting Directive, the statutory auditor or audit firm carrying out the statutory audit of financial statements has to express an opinion on whether the management report is consistent with the financial statements for the same financial year. When a statutory auditor or an audit firm other than the one(s) carrying out the statutory audit of financial statements is in charge of expressing the assurance opinion on sustainability reporting, the statutory auditor or audit firm in charge of auditing the financial statements remains in charge of expressing an opinion on the consistency between management report and financial statements for the same financial year. 73) In which document does the assurance opinion need to be included? In the assurance report (107). If the assurance opinion is given by the same auditor that does the audit of financial statements, Member States may allow auditors to include the assurance opinion as a separate section of the audit report. 74) How should the assurance report be published? Are there any format requirements for the assurance report? Union law does not currently require a specific format for the audit report and/or its signature. However, Article 33a of the Accounting Directive as amended by the ESAP package, requires undertakings to submit the assurance report to the relevant ESAP collection body when they make it public and to use a data extractable format (or a machine-readable format, where required by Union or national law), together with the relevant accompanying metadata. The Commission is also empowered to adopt implementing measures to specify further metadata to accompany the assurance report and to require a machine-readable format. 75) What assurance standards should be used by assurance providers of the sustainability statement pending the adoption of assurance standards by the European Commission? Based on Article 26(1) second subparagraph of the Audit Directive, Member States may apply national auditing standards, procedures or requirements as long as the Commission has not adopted an international auditing standard covering the same subject matter. Given the qualitative characteristics of information required under ESRS 1 (Chapter 2 and Appendix B: relevance and faithful representation as well as comparability, verifiability and understandability) and in order to avoid fragmentation and ensure that practices are as consistent as possible during this transitional period, pending the adoption of Union assurance standards, the Commission has requested the Committee of European Auditing Oversight Bodies (CEAOB) to develop in 2024 non-binding guidelines for statutory auditors and other assurance services providers. 76) Would it be possible for Member States to allow undertakings subject to CSRD requirements to assign, on a voluntary basis, an engagement to express an opinion based on a mixed form of assurance (i.e. a limited assurance on parts of the sustainability reporting and a reasonable assurance on other parts of the reporting – for example on specific key performance indicators)? Based on Article 34(1), second subparagraph, point (aa) of the Accounting Directive, the assurance opinion on the sustainability reporting has to be based on a limited assurance engagement (108). Considering that a reasonable assurance engagement provides for a higher level of assurance compared to a limited assurance engagement, the CSRD does not prevent an undertaking from deciding voluntarily to ask for an opinion based on reasonable assurance on the whole sustainability reporting or parts of it. This decision would be for the undertaking and not for the assurance provider. 77) Shall undertakings that report sustainability information in accordance with ESRS on a voluntary basis (such as SMEs without securities admitted to trading on an EU regulated market) be required to subject this information to assurance? The CSRD does not regulate sustainability reporting carried out on a voluntary basis. An undertaking carrying out sustainability reporting on a voluntary basis is therefore not required to subject its sustainability information to an assurance engagement.

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