Consultation on amending the ESEF and EEAP RTS with regard to sustainability and financial reporting

On 13 December 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched a consultation on amending the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) of the ESEF Regulation (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/815) and the EEAP Regulation (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1437). Comments can be submitted until 31 March 2025.

The consultation consists of one document with five annexes, divided into several files. In addition to specific amendments to the ESEF-RTS, changes to the tagging of disclosures in the notes to IFRS consolidated financial statements and new tagging rules for ESRS and taxonomy disclosures in the context of sustainability reporting using XBRL taxonomies are proposed. A phased-in approach is planned for the implementation of the tagging rules for sustainability reporting, according to which not all sustainability disclosures have to be tagged immediately and comprehensively by all companies (sections 3.3.3 and 4.2.2 of the document).

ESMA will consider the feedback it received to this consultation in Q2 2025 and expects to publish a final report and submission of the draft technical standards to the European Commission for endorsement in Q3 2025.

Background:

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD, Directive (EU) 2022/2464) amending the Accounting Directive (Directive 2013/34/EU) came into force on 5 January 2023. The aim of the CSRD is for companies to disclose relevant, comparable and reliable sustainability information. Companies within the scope of the CSRD must prepare their (group) management report in the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) set out in Article 3 of the ESEF Regulation and tag their sustainability reporting in an electronic format (Art. 29d Accounting Directive). The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) was commissioned by the European Commission to develop XBRL taxonomies for digital sustainability reporting, which were publicly consulted on in 2024 and subsequently submitted to the European Commission. The European Commission clarifies that the new rules on digital sustainability reporting will only apply once the amendments to the ESEF Regulation have been adopted (Question 38 of Notice C/2024/6792).

In response to the CSRD provisions on digital sustainability reporting, the ASCG formed a working group with XBRL Germany, which began its work on 10 January 2023. On 8 April 2024, the ASCG submitted a comment letter to EFRAG on the draft XBRL taxonomies. On 8 August 2024, the ASCG published a briefing paper on digital sustainability reporting (in German only), which takes into account the publication of the government’s draft implementation law for the CSRD on 24 July 2024. Finally, the ASCG has been organising a user forum on digital financial reporting in accordance with the ESEF Regulation since 2019, which exclusively offers ASCG member companies and associations an insight into current developments and serves as a platform for discussing implementation issues.