Consultations

The most detailed consultations are those announced by EFRAG, which I wrote about two weeks ago and which concern changes to ESRS standards. Just to remind you, the online consultation form is available at this address. They will continue until May 6, 2025. It is not necessary to complete the entire survey; we can comment on those issues on which we have a clear opinion or propose changes to selected disclosure requirements. After the consultation is complete, EFRAG will analyze the proposals submitted and also take into account the conclusions from a series of interviews conducted with representatives of companies, financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations. The results of the consultation will form the basis for work on changes to the standards. If you are interested in how the simplification of standards will be implemented, the Sustainability Reporting Board adopted on April 25, 2025. work plan.

The simplification of ESRSs is one of the elements of the Omnibus project announced by the Commission on February 26, 2025. The first of the legislative initiatives, i.e., the postponement of the CSRD and CSDDD directives for certain groups of companies, has already been adopted and entered into force. However, the main changes to both directives, contained in the so-called „big” Omnibus, will be discussed by the Parliament and the Council for most of 2025. Although the Commission did not subject the draft to any public consultation, it made sure that #WeAreEurope initiative. It is currently conducting a questionnaire for companies on the planned changes to the CSRD directive. You can read more here. about the initiative itself, and You can find the questionnaire itself at this address.. It takes about 10 minutes to complete, but the survey will only be available until April 30, 2025. I encourage you to fill it out 😊

The European Commission, in turn, is gathering opinions on what should be financed under the next multiannual EU budget (after 2027). These are very extensive consultations, which have been ongoing since February and are scheduled to end on May 6, 2025. At this address you will find all the details. The consultations are divided into several separate questionnaires. The penultimate one (the one concerning Financiamiento de la UE para el mercado único y cooperación entre autoridades nacionales) contains a series of questions on issues such as sustainable finance and standardization of corporate reporting, including sustainability reporting. For several weeks now, I have been encouraging everyone to take part in the entire consultation process, because this is a unique opportunity for us, as EU citizens, to have a direct say on what initiatives the EU should finance (and, of course, which initiatives we do not consider important). There are still a number of steps to be taken before the next multiannual EU budget is adopted, and we are sure to see heated discussions among politicians along the way. But since we have the opportunity to express our views directly, it is definitely worth it!

The latest consultations are being conducted by GlobeScan, a consulting firm specializing in research on sustainability and social engagement. GlobeScan is currently seeking answers to the question of which initiatives in the broadly understood field of sustainable development can bring the most positive effects to the world and what is the likelihood that they will be implemented on a sufficiently large scale in the next five years. The questionnaire is available here.. I invite you to participate in this study, which allows us to break away from the often limiting perspective of struggling with reporting and reflect on what sustainability is really about and how we can work towards systemic change.

Perhaps you have already left for your May holiday, or maybe you are still fighting the final stretch to finalize a report in accordance with ESRS standards? In either case, you may find a moment to participate in at least some of the consultations I have indicated above. It's worth it. Sometimes we may think that one person's voice doesn't matter much. But it's a bit like elections. We take part in them knowing that millions of other people will vote. And in these consultations, each person's voice is much stronger, because usually hundreds or thousands of people take part in them, not millions 😊