On 29 November 2021, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a letter from John Berrigan, Deputy Director-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission, to Irene Tinagli, Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament and Andrej Šircelj, President of the Ecofin Council, Council of the European Union.

In the letter the ESMA refers to the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) under Articles 8(4), 9(6) and 11(5) of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) that the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) submitted to the Commission in late October. The ESMA informs the Commission that the draft RTS could not be adopted by the Commission within the three-month period, given their length and technical detail, which requires additional time in the adoption process.

The letter goes on to say that since the grounds for the transitional arrangement envisaged in Article 4(3) of the draft RTS are no longer relevant, and in view of the overall deferral of the application of the delegated act, the ESAs envisage that financial market participants, which publish the statement referred in Article 4(1), point (a), of the SFDR, or paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 4 of that Regulation will have to comply with the disclosure requirements on principal adverse impacts on sustainability matters laid down in the delegated act the first time by 30 June 2023, i.e. the first reference period under the regulatory technical standards to be 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.