Platform on Sustainable Finance response to the Commission’s consultation on the European sustainability reporting standards (ESRS)

The Platform on Sustainable Finance, an advisory body to the European Commission, has been consulted by the European Commission on the technical advice provided by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) regarding amended European sustainability reporting standards (ESRS).

In its response to the consultation, the Platform has carried out a usability assessment of the proposed ESRS and their integration within the wider EU sustainable finance framework, notably with the EU taxonomy. Key recommendations from that assessment include

• improving consistency and connectivity between ESRS and the Taxonomy Regulation through a mapping exercise, to be undertaken by the Platform and EFRAG jointly, as well as implementation guidance for practitioners. The objective is to reduce duplication by enabling overlapping ESRS datapoints – across environmental objectives and minimum safeguards – to be used for both frameworks through a single, integrated reporting and assurance process
• allowing for a stronger integration of EU taxonomy‑related information – such as taxonomy-aligned revenues, capital expenditure (CapEx), CapEx plans, and, where relevant, operating expenditure (OpEx) – into ESRS climate transition plan disclosures, as well as into other environmental or transition plan disclosures where applicable
• developing a voluntary standardised transition plan template for non‑financial undertakings as part of the ESRS reporting
• improving consistency between the ESRS, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the Benchmark Regulation, as well as the wider sustainable finance framework in terms of definitions, scope, and underlying methodologies

As part of the Omnibus I package amending the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Commission committed to adopt a Delegated Act to revise the first set of ESRS, which started to apply on 1 January 2024, based on the technical advice provided by EFRAG. The Commission plans to adopt its Delegated Act on the revised ESRS before the summer 2026, based on the advice provided by EFRAG on 3 December 2025 and taking into consideration the input of the Platform and the other relevant EU bodies.