28 March 2025, Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union, Maria Luís Albuquerque, addressed the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board (EFRAG SRB), together with the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Technical Expert Group (EFRAG SR TEG) to outline the European Commission’s specific mandate to EFRAG on the simplification of the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). This mandate falls within EFRAG’s role as technical advisor to the European Commission under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
Commissioner Albuquerque highlighted the urgent need for a fast-track process to implement these simplifications, emphasizing their importance in the context of the current geopolitical and economic landscape. She stressed that simplifying and enhancing usability of the ESRS will support companies in their sustainability reporting efforts.
EFRAG is fully committed to this simplification exercise, leveraging experience from the first wave of companies that issue their sustainability statements for the 2024 financial year. This will ensure changes that substantially reduce the amount of mandatory data points and the burden for the practical application of ESRS while maintaining the robustness and effectiveness of sustainability reporting.
Patrick de Cambourg, Chair of the EFRAG SRB, welcomed the Commissioner’s communication and reaffirmed EFRAG’s commitment and dedication to its role in this process:
“EFRAG is fully aligned with the objective of simplifying and enhancing the first set of ESRS to ensure they remain practical, effective, and proportionate. By building on the experience of first wave companies, we will simplify the standards to support companies in delivering meaningful and decision-useful sustainability information while maintaining the ambition of the CSRD.”
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