Stakeholder Expectations on CSR Management and Current Regulatory Developments in Europe and Germany

Abstract

The new European Directive 2014/95/EU extends the corporate disclosure of public interest entities (PIE) in the EU by a non-financial statement. The new member state option allows either the integration of these sustainability-related aspects into the traditional management report or the preparation of a separate report in line with established CSR guidelines – for example a sustainability report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines or an integrated report in accordance with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) framework. However it is unclear which sustainability-related aspects as a key instrument of CSR management should be prospectively disclosed. Although the EU is seeking for concretization hereof, the member states are facing the challenge of implementing this Directive without any specific instructions or definition of sectoral key performance indicators to be disclosed. Based on a German survey of various stakeholder groups the present article explores, which sustainability-related aspects are useful for their decisions and could be therefore disclosed within the management report in accordance with the GRI guidelines.