07 July 2020

Eumedion Foundation: Position paper calling for a global standard-setter for non-financial reporting

The Eumedion Foundation based in the Netherlands has published a position paper 'Towards a global, investor focused standard setter for corporate non-financial reporting' calling on the IFRS Foundation to establish such a standard-setter.

This position paper concludes the final views of Eumedion, following the publication of Eumedion’s Green paper in October 20191, the feedback received during the Eumedion Conference 20192, the formal and informal responses received3 and the insights shared during the round table that Eumedion organised together with Accountancy Europe on 9 March 20204.
Key messages of the position paper Investors struggle to understand how a company creates long-term value and how a company lives up to the valid needs of society where non-financial performance matters.
There is a need for an International Non-financial reporting Standards Board (‘INSB’) to ensure that enforceable and consistent investor-relevant non-financial information is faithfully represented in the management report section of the corporate annual report5.
Eumedion calls on the IFRS Foundation to establish the INSB, as a second separate board next to the International Accounting Standards Board.
External auditors should provide at least limited assurance on the entire management report, irrespective of whether a matter bears any relation to the annual financial statements. Reasonable assurance should at least be applied to certain non-financial key performance indicators. This would enhance the reliability of corporate non-financial reporting.

Eumedion Foundation