Jean Monnet Module Erasmus + SUSTAINABILITY DISCLOSURE IN CORPORATE REPORTING SDCR IMPROVEMENT AND HARMONIZATION OF BEST PRACTICES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Over the last decade, disclosure of nonfinancial information is gaining momentum and attracting the attention from managers, consultants, financial institutions, investors, financial analysts, governments and communities, leading companies to implement relevant changes in several key areas of corporate reporting. Recently, an important milestone has been achieved by the approval of the Directive EU/95/2014 issued on October 22, 2014 focussing on Disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by large companies and groups. All EU member states have to implement these requirements within their domestic laws calling for large companies (exceeding 500 employees) to disclose nonfinancial information on environmental, social, employee related, diversity, human rights, bribery and anti-corruption matters, by the fiscal year 2017. Although there is an increasing number of companies that have chosen “stand-alone” reports for providing nonfinancial information on sustainability issues, there is no a common standard or framework to regulate disclosure of nonfinancial information. Hence, the introduction of the Directive can lead to a radical change on this topic and bring an urgent recognition of the current state of sustainability reporting and of the main differences among the European countries claiming new skills and competencies on this issue. The strategic aim of the project is to promote teaching, research, discussion and dissemination of information on sustainability reporting, i.e. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) related activities at the European level in the context of the adoption of the Directive. The project endeavours to engage law and business administration students from universities and higher educational institutes in the next three years, along with academia, civil society, European policy makers to deepen participants’ knowledge, understanding and building their competencies on the role and value of sustainability reporting.