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On 20th June 2024, EuropeanIssuers, Insurance Europe, and the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) released a Joint Statement on the Exposure Draft ESRS for Listed SMEs (ESRS LSME ED). The signatories of the Joint Statement expressed concerns that the current Exposure Draft may lead to disproportionate burdens on listed SMEs and excessive reporting obligations. This could ultimately prevent SMEs from considering a public listing. Such a consequence would lead to a missed opportunity for smaller undertakings to gather necessary funding for the digital and environmental transitions.
EuropeanIssuers, Insurance Europe and FESE underlined the complexity of the ESRS LSME ED. Signatories proposed a minimisation of the LSME Standard via the addition of a fourth module with targeted additional disclosures for listed SMEs to the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for Non-listed SMEs Exposure Draft (VSME ED). Such an approach would lead to one common simplified standard for all SMEs to be issued under Art. 29c of the Accounting Directive as intended by CSRD.