La strategia dell’Unione Europea per la rendicontazione di sostenibilità

The United Nations' effort for a business and development model that respects human rights and the environment, implemented through the global implementation of the principles of the Global Compact (1999), the definition of the three fundamental ESG categories (2004), the definition of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015) to be achieved by 2030, has been widely accepted by the European Union, the geopolitical area that has proven to be the most sensitive and attentive to sustainability issues and has translated its commitment into concrete action plans, directives and regulations. After the 2015 Paris Agreement, which binds all countries belonging to the European Union to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, with the “Action Plan on Sustainable Finance” (2018), the “European Green Deal” (2019), the “Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation” (2019), the “European Green Deal Investment Plan” (2020), the “Taxonomy Regulation”, the “European Climate Law” Regulation (2021) and several other measures, the European Union was one of the first international bodies to make sustainability the driving force of its growth strategy and to adopt binding rules with the aim of promoting sustainable development within member countries. In line with this strategic choice, the European Union has also played a central role in sustainability reporting; in this sense, the introduction of the requirements to collect information for a growing number of companies through the recent CSRD Directive, which amended the NFRD Directive, and the issuance, with the contribution of EFRAG, of its own set of sustainability accounting standards, the “European Sustainability Reporting Standards” (ESRS), officially adopted by the European Commission on 31 July 2023, are of key importance. By requiring the mandatory application of the ESRS standards to companies subject to the CSRD Directive, the European Union aims to ensure reliable and comparable information, but above all to commit companies to rigorously assess the impacts, risks and opportunities related to the numerous environmental, social and governance aspects of sustainability of their activities and therefore implement the necessary improvement actions. The choice of the European Union to prepare its own set of sustainability accounting standards, consistent with its objectives, directives and regulations, differs from the decision taken at the beginning of the new millennium in terms of principles for annual financial statements. When the European Council held in Lisbon in March 2000 indicated to the European Commission the need to quickly adopt measures to improve the comparability of the financial statements of listed companies, the Commission had two options: to develop its own set of accounting principles, or to identify the most suitable among the standards already formulated by other international bodies. The European Commission then chose to take the second path, deciding to adopt the international accounting principles IAS/IFRS issued by the IASC/IASB. The decision of the European Union to prepare its own set of accounting principles to apply to sustainability reports does not limit the desire to engage and interact with the main international standard setters. In fact, the European Commission has worked intensively to ensure a high level of alignment between the ESRS and the GRI and ISSB standards in order to make the Union and global standards interoperable and avoid double reporting obligations to companies. The sustainability reporting strategy adopted by the European Union, which sets it for a leading role in the international arena, is closely connected to the incisive environmental, social and governance policies it has implemented following the choice to make sustainability the heart of its development strategy. The European Union is strongly pursuing the achievement of its objectives; it is hoped that the timeframes outlined will not be delayed due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict or the Middle Eastern crisis, which could shift available resources from sustainability to other areas, such as reconstruction or defense.