EFRAG confirms the joint candidate from ASCG and RNE, Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen, as a member of the EFRAG Lab Project Task Force on Sustainability Reporting Standards

As a joint effort by German government-related organisations, the ASCG and the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) sent a letter to EFRAG President Jean-Paul Gauzès last Friday in which they nominated Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen (University of Hamburg) as a joint candidate for the Project Task Force.

Today, Jean-Paul Gauzès has confirmed the membership of Prof. Dr. Bassen. The Project Task Force as part of the EFRAG Lab will start this Wednesday, 9 June 2021, under the leadership of its French Chairman Patrick de Cambourg (ANC) with the development of European core standards for sustainability reporting.

For its part, EFRAG was invited on 12 May 2021 by the responsible EU Commissioner Mairead McGuiness to develop so-called core standards for sustainability reporting by 15 June 2022 in accordance with the Commission’s proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). According to the CSRD proposal adopted on 21 April 2021, the scope of application in Germany would be expanded from around 500 to approximately 15,000 companies. This means that a large part of the almost 50,000 preparers expected by the European Commission would be German companies. Due to the significant effect on the German corporate community, the DRSC has requested an additional German member in the Project Task Force and nominated together with the RNE Prof. Dr. Bassen, a recognised expert in the field of sustainability reporting.

ASCG President Georg Lanfermann welcomes Prof. Dr. Bassen’s appointment: “It is a positive signal that, in view of the fundamental developments expected for German corporate reporting, the various German actors collaborate in a constructive manner to contribute to these reporting standards with a particular view to their feasibility from a company’s perspective.”

Prof. Bassen, who in addition to his membership in the RNE is also a member of the Sustainable Finance Committee of the Federal Government, comments on the appointment as follows: “It is an honour to have been nominated by both institutions – DRSC and RNE. I look forward to this task with great pleasure.”

ASCG and RNE also plan to invite the other German participants in the Project Task Force to a regular exchange in order to coordinate the German contributions to the Task Force’s work.