European Commission Adopts ESG Reporting Rules for Smaller Firms

The European Commission officially adopted voluntary sustainability disclosure rules aimed at smaller companies that fall outside mandatory reporting standards that started to kick in last year for bigger businesses.

The Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard approved Monday was written by the commission’s accounting adviser, EFRAG, which also wrote the European Sustainability Reporting Standards that are required for large companies. The voluntary rules are a simplified version of the 12 mandatory standards, which cover reporting on a range of environmental, social, and governance issues.

• “This landmark step could affect over 31.2 million SMEs across Europe,” EFRAG said in a statement, referring to ...