EIOPA urges stronger data discipline in revised ESRS
As Europe recalibrates its sustainability reporting regime, The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has issued its Opinion on the draft revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), responding to technical advice from European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). While backing efforts to reduce reporting burdens, EIOPA warns against creating permanent blind spots in corporate sustainability disclosures.
The recommendations include limiting, to three years, the proposed waiver allowing companies to omit data on the grounds of “undue costs or efforts”. Without a time cap, EIOPA argues, key sustainability information could remain unavailable indefinitely. A defined timeframe would, by contrast, incentivise companies to build robust data collection systems and strengthen interoperability with global standards.
EIOPA also calls for closer alignment with prudential regulation, suggesting that (re)insurers be permitted to leverage existing Solvency II risk management processes when conducting financial materiality assessments, as sustainability data should not sit in isolation, but integrate with established risk frameworks.
With parallel Opinions requested from the European Banking Authority, European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Central Bank, supervisory scrutiny of the revised ESRS continues.
Read EIOPA’s Opinion here.
