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The EU framework for public corporate reporting is based on a number of EU Directives, Regulations and Recommendations including a range of financial and non-financial reporting requirements applying to listed and non-listed companies. In addition, there are sector specific requirements (banks and insurance) as well as disclosure requirements specific to listed companies.1 The legislation has been adopted at different points in time over the last 40 years and was amended several times mostly to address ad hoc issues.
IT developments and sustainability concerns have brought rapid changes in business environments over the last years. Investors have started to demand a broader range of information to assess companies' long-term value creation. These developments have given rise to a wide-ranging public debate about whether corporate reporting continues to fulfil its objectives and is keeping pace with social, economic and technological developments.
Against this background the European Commission is conducting a comprehensive check to determine whether the EU framework for public reporting by companies is still fit for purpose(effective, relevant and efficient in achieving the intended objectives), fit for new challenges(such as sustainability and digitalisation), coherent and adds value at EU level. This exercise is distinct from the Commission’s ongoing Fitness Check on supervisory reporting by regulated financial entities, but is coordinated with it.
As part of the overall fitness check, the Commission asked stakeholders for their views on the EU public reporting framework in a public consultation launched on 21 March 2018. Given that it covered five different pieces of EU legislation, the consultation was broken down in thematic subjects and the consultation period lasted 4 months instead of 3 months. Stakeholders from 23 Member States and 25 third countries submitted 338 responses.Not all of the 338 respondents responded to all 67 questions of the consultation.