ecoDa EU Alert – Week 3

Highlights

European Institutions
– EC’s strategy to strengthen EU financial system;
– The Platform on Sustainable Finance to guide the sustainable transition;
– EP: Report on Due Diligence vote;
– EFRAG: seeks stakeholders’ views on reporting practices;

International Developments
– IIRC: revision to International Framework;
– Report: Leadership in AI 2021;

National Developments
– France: Report: From Start-ups to Unicorns;
– Germany: gender equality in management bodies;
– UK: evaluations of boards face tighter scrutiny;

Events
– Guberna: Directors’ Day;
– The Board Leadership Society: the Global Outlook 2021;
– CEPS: combating money laundering;
– Sustainable finance agenda of the EU for 2021.

ecoDa’s News

Click here for the ecoDa EU Alert – Week 3.

European institutions developments

EC: Takes further actions to foster the strength and resilience of Europe’s financial system
The European Commission presented a new strategy to stimulate the openness, strength and resilience of the EU’s economic and financial system. This proposed approach is based on three pillars:
• Bolstering the euro as the default currency for sustainable financial products;
• Further developing EU financial market infrastructures and improving their resilience;
• Further promoting the uniform implementation and enforcement of the EU’s own sanctions.

EC: Requests the Platform on Sustainable Finance to provide advice on financing transition
The Commission is asking the Platform on Sustainable Finance to provide advice on the existing and potential use of the EU taxonomy framework for enabling the financing of the transition towards a sustainable economy. The Platform should provide its advice by mid-March 2021.
In addition, by 1 June 2021, the Commission will adopt a delegated act setting out the content, presentation and methodologies for complying with the disclosure requirements of the Taxonomy Regulation.

EP: Report on Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate accountability
On the 27th of January, the European Parliament will vote on Lara Wolters’ report on Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability.

EFRAG: Stakeholders’ views shought on non-financial risks and opportunities reporting practices
The EFRAG Project Task Force on Reporting of Non-Financial Risks and Opportunities seeks stakeholders’ views on factors influencing current reporting practices. The European Lab PTF-RNFRO has been tasked to identify good reporting practices of sustainability-related risks and opportunities and how these are linked to developing and sustaining a company’s business model/s.
The survey is open until the end of January 2021.

International Developments

IIRC: Publishes revisions to International Framework to enable enhanced reporting
The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has published revisions to the IR Framework to enable more decision-useful reporting. The revisions focuses on a simplification of the required statement of responsibility for the integrated report; improved insight into the quality and integrity of the underlying reporting process; a clearer distinction between outputs and outcomes; and a greater emphasis on the balanced reporting of outcomes and value preservation and erosion scenarios.

Report: Leadership in AI 2021
Board Agenda and Mazars, in association with INSEAD published a report examining the adoption and perceived benefits of AI, as well as the constraints and AI’s potential impact on corporate culture. Despite an expectation that over two-thirds of organisations will implement some level of AI in the next 12 months, many organisations and boards lack the knowledge and skills to make this happen.

National Developments

France: Report, From Start-ups to Unicorns
The French Institute of Directors, IFA, has published a report entitled “From Start-ups to Unicorns: aiming for a Growth-Promoting Governance”. The purpose of this report is to provide keys, drawn from experienced practitioners to help start-up CEOs and their entourage develop their companies over time.
The report elaborates on seven keys for Growth-Promoting Governance; mentoring, trust, independence, strategy, empowerment, deployment and perpetuation.

Germany: intends to boost the proportion of women in company management bodies
The German government presented on Wednesday 6th of January a bill that plans to introduce at least one woman into the governing bodies of German companies with more than three directors. The bill, which has yet to be adopted by Bundestag MPs ahead of elections scheduled for 26 September, also provides for the introduction of a fixed quota of at least 30% women on the boards of directors of companies in which the state is a majority shareholder.

UK: Evaluation of UK company boards face tighter scrutiny
A review commissioned by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and carried out by the Chartered Governance Institute, has recommended increasing scrutiny of providers of external board performance. The institute has recommended that the government bring in a voluntary code of conduct, focused on areas such as competence and capacity, independence and integrity, client engagement and client disclosure.

Events

Guberna, the Belgian Institute for Directors, will organise the GUBERNA Director’s Day on the 23rd of February. This Director’s Day is the flagship event of the institute which focuses on the individual director. The theme of this edition is: Unlocking resilience through good governance – Corona proof Covid-19 testimonials from organisations across Belgium.
More information can be found here.

Board Leadership Society: The Global Otlook 2021
With the support of ecoDa, the Board Leadership Society, will organise a conference on the 28th of January (4.00-5.50pm CET) to discuss key challenges and opportunities for business in 2021.
With the Biden-Harris presidency, the growing COVID-19 resilience, cybercrime are likely to shape tomorrow’s corporate landscape, and this webinar will address what could be the new normal.

CEPS: Combating money laundering in the EU
CEPS is organising an event on how to combat money laundering in the EU on the 28th of January (from 10.30 to 11.30am CET). CEPS together with ECRI will be launching a new task force report to provide recommendations to both the public and private sectors to combat money laundering.

The EU sustainable finance agenda in 2021
On the 28th of January (from 10.00am CET), ISFC, WiseEuropa & the Equilibrium Institute will organise an event aiming at at clarifying that will be the major developments in the EU sustainable finance agenda and what will be the focus for future regulation on this topic.

EcoDa’s news

• January 25th: Béatrice Richez-Baum speaking at ESSEC Business School;
• January 29th: Working Group of ecoDa’s Education Committee kick-off meeting;
• February 5th: ecoDa-AccountancyEurope-EY Joint Workshop on ”Sustainable governance: Future of Audit Committees”, in presence of Jeroen Hoijer European Commission;
• February 10th: ecoDa webinar on ”ESG: from Awareness to Strategic Moves”. Registrations are open.