Formal enactment of 12 sector-agnostic European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) into the European legislation

On 22 December 2023, “Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 of 31 July 2023 supplementing Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards sustainability reporting standards” was published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The sustainability reporting standards that undertakings must use for carrying out the sustainability reporting in accordance with Directive 2013/34/EU are set out in Annexes I and II. Annex II contains a list of abbreviations and terms defined in the ESRS. Annex I is divided as follows:

• ESRS 1 General requirements
• ESRS 2 General disclosures
• ESRS E1 Climate change
• ESRS E2 Pollution
• ESRS E3 Water and marine resources
• ESRS E4 Biodiversity and ecosystems
• ESRS E5 Resource use and circular economy
• ESRS S1 Own workforce
• ESRS S2 Workers in the value chain
• ESRS S3 Affected communities
• ESRS S4 Consumers and end-users
• ESRS G1 Business conduct

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 is applicable as of 1 January 2024 for financial years beginning on or after that date and is directly applicable in all Member States.

Background information
Directive 2013/34/EU, as amended by Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council, requires large undertakings, small and medium-sized undertakings with securities admitted to trading on the EU regulated markets, as well as parent undertakings of large groups, to include in a dedicated section of their management report or consolidated management report the information necessary to understand the undertaking’s impacts on sustainability matters, and the information necessary to understand how sustainability matters affect the undertaking’s development, performance and position. Undertakings are to prepare this information in accordance with sustainability reporting standards starting from the financial year indicated in Directive (EU) 2022/2464 for each category of undertakings.

The Commission was required to adopt by 30 June 2023 a first set of standards specifying the information that undertakings are to report. The Commission has considered the technical advice provided by the EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group), a private association established in 2001. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 was formally adopted on 31 July 2023, with no objections during the co-legislators’ scrutiny period, which ended on 21 October 2023.”