On 29 July 2022, the European Central Bank (ECB) published its response to the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group’s (EFRAG) public consultation on the first set of draft European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

The response provides the following general remarks:

• The ECB strongly supports EU efforts to improve sustainability disclosures.
• The ECB welcomes the progress made by the EFRAG in developing EU sustainability reporting standards (ESRS).
• The ECB appreciates the good quality ESRS drafts.
• The ECB especially welcomes the high ambition of the draft climate standard.
• The ECB encourages EFRAG to consider further improvements in some areas, including further efforts to simplify and streamline the architecture to improve readability and reduce redundancies.
• The ECB considers that the materiality assessment requires some fine tuning.
• The ECB encourages the development of the ESRS sectoral standards, and in particular, the timely development of standards for credit institutions. Here, special attention will be needed to ensure alignment with existing prudential disclosure requirements.
• The ECB emphasises the importance of the global coherence of sustainability disclosures and urges EFRAG and the International Sustainability Standard Board to continue their cooperation to minimise divergences.
• The ECB welcomes the opportunity to provide its feedback to the public consultation on the ESRS drafts.