EFRAG Public Consultation

A Voluntary SME Standard (VSME) is intended to assist non-capital market-oriented SMEs in meeting the information requirements of companies with sustainability reporting obligations or banks. The draft for a VSME was developed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) on behalf of the EU Commission. In order to gather input from stakeholders on this important project, EFRAG has launched a public consultation in which Eurochambres also participated.

The chamber network emphasizes, that the so-called trickle-down effect and the resulting burden on SMEs from both European and national regulations, including sustainability reporting, is significant. There is a need for further improvements at the European level to mitigate the perceived disproportionate direct and indirect reporting requirements. Among other measures, a practical, revised VSME basic module should be incorporated into the European sustainability reporting directive and considered by the European Financial Supervision.

A future Europe-wide Voluntary ESRS for non-listed small- and medium-sized enterprises (VSME) must address two main goals: fulfilling the information needs of business partners and financial institutions with reporting obligations, and enabling SMEs to collect the required information with reasonable effort. To achieve a practical voluntary SME standard, various revisions to the VSME draft are necessary.