Building the reporting landscape of the future
Imagine a future where the burdens of unnecessary paperwork no longer hinder innovation and
growth. Where digital solutions automatically manage data collection, processing, seamless data
sharing and reporting. Where businesses have moved resources from compliance to investing in
their green transition and competitiveness.
This future is achievable. And it should be built in Europe.
Together we have set world-leading standards for sustainability reporting in the EU. We have
urged European businesses to champion the cause of sustainability and they are heavily invested
in the task. It is now our responsibility to make the data sharing and reporting landscape as cost-
efficient as possible.
The new disclosure requirements will result in a surge of data exchanges between companies.
These exchanges of business data
–
financial and sustainability related
–
tend to be unstructured
and use different, non-interoperable formats, leading to unnecessary administrative costs and
distortions of the digital single market.
Now is the time to act. While efforts to map reporting requirements, and to remove redundant,
duplicating, and obsolete obligations are all vital and necessary steps, more must be done to
achieve the objective of reducing burdens related to reporting obligations by 25 per cent. We
must approach this issue using standardised, digital data that in turn will allow automated
exchanges of business data.
As an example of the burden reduction potential of digitisation: the Danish Bookkeeping act
accelerates the use of digital bookkeeping systems. The act is estimated to deliver 400 million
EUR in annual savings from automating business processes. If extrapolated to the EU level, it
would result in annual savings of approximately 20 billion EUR for European businesses.
To achieve these goals, Denmark proposes that:
•
The next EU Commission should propose an ambitious horizontal action plan for
reducing administrative burdens, including mapping reporting requirements to make a
baseline, creating annual burden reduction targets, and make digitisation, standardisation,
and automation a core driver of the strategy.
On a technical level, we must agree on a target state digital architecture to support the
seamless exchange of ESG-related data. This will significantly reduce administrative
burdens and unleash the growth and innovation potential of a data driven economy.
•
We must accelerate the twin transition and reduce burdens for European businesses, especially
SMEs. We need to regain
Europe’s competitive edge.
Reaping the benefits of digitisation is key.
Let’s dare to
build the reporting and data sharing landscape of the future.