On 22 March 2024, the Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) issued a draft on the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This brings Germany closer to the goal of implementing the adopted directive into German law.
The CSRD aims to improve transparency regarding corporate sustainability information. In conjunction with other European regulations, it expands the requirements for reporting on non-financial aspects and aims to promote uniform and comparable disclosures. This is intended to contribute in particular to the timely achievement of Goal 12 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (responsible production and consumption). It also serves to enable investors, regulators and other stakeholders to better understand the (long-term) sustainability performance of companies.
CSRD schedule
Like in ours last blog post As set out above, the thresholds of the size classes that are decisive for the applicability of the CSRD have been adjusted. The changes came into force on 16 April 2024 with the announcement in Federal Law Gazette . For further information about the CSRD, please see our white paper, which you can here can request.
CSRD implementation
The draft bill largely complies with the requirements of the CSRD, as it provides only a few options for Member States and Germany has a 1:1 implementation The compliance costs for the economy are expected to be a one-off expenditure of around EUR 748 million and ongoing expenditure of around EUR 1,4 billion annually (from 2028 at the latest).
The following points in particular should be observed in the new regulations:
- sustainability report
In future, the (group) management report will be expanded to include a so-called sustainability report in accordance with the legal requirements of Sections 289b ff HGB-E, 315b f. HBG-E. This will replace the previously known non-financial (group) statement. The option to omit disadvantageous information in accordance with Section 289e HGB-E will be retained according to the draft bill.
- Content
The sustainability report is intended to convey the mutual impacts of corporate activities and sustainability aspects. In this context, information is required that must be provided in a uniform manner in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which we have already reported on in our blog post from February 2024 informed.
- Examination
According to the new Sections 324b et seq. of the German Commercial Code (HGB-E), the sustainability report must in future be subjected to a substantive audit as part of the (consolidated) annual report. This audit is the responsibility of an auditor or an auditing firm. It is possible to select the auditor of the annual or consolidated financial statements in accordance with Section 324e of the German Commercial Code (HGB-E) as the auditor for the sustainability report. The German legislator thus waived the option granted in Article 34, Paragraph 4 of Directive 2013/34/EU, as amended by the CSRD, to also recognize other providers of assurance services (i.e. not auditors or auditing firms) as auditors of sustainability reporting.
- Tagging
Companies that are required to prepare a sustainability report are obliged to do so in accordance with Article 3 of the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/815 (ESEF Regulation) to prepare the (group) annual report in a uniform electronic reporting format and to identify sustainability information. The exact specifications for this are not yet available, so the BMJ is given the authority to define the future European requirements more precisely by means of legal regulations, Sections 289g, 315e HGB-E.
- disclosure
The management report, together with the audit report on the sustainability report, must be published in the company register, Section 325 Paragraph 1, 3 HGB-E. The revised sentence 2 in Section 11 Paragraph 2 URV provides for transmission to the company register in a uniform electronic format.
Next Steps
Comments on the draft bill could be submitted until April 19, 2024 and are to be published on the BMJ website. The DRSC has also published a statement and expressly welcomes the intended 1:1 implementation of the CSRD.
The legislative process will then follow, and it remains to be seen whether the changes will be adopted by the end of the implementation period on July 6, 2024. Changes to the content of the draft bill cannot be ruled out until then.
Your future with Moore TK
The prospects for future corporate sustainability reporting are promising. The EU-wide uniform standards help companies to meet their social and environmental responsibilities, ensure transparency and comparability, and at the same time achieve long-term business success. Companies that familiarize themselves with these standards early on and align their sustainability efforts accordingly will not only meet the new requirements, but can also benefit from increased trust from investors and stakeholders.
Moore TK supports companies of all sizes and stages of development for which sustainability reporting is relevant. Given the complexity of the topic, an end-to-end perspective is essential.
Is your company affected by the CSRD or is sustainability relevant to you? We will work with you to successfully implement and execute it. You can find more information here.
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Christian Pätzold
Partners

Hanna Swarowsky
Manager
