On 27 September 2016, FERMA took part in a one-day workshop in Brussels with other stakeholders to finalise the key features of the guidelines on implementation of the EU Non-Financial Reporting (NFR) Directive.

FERMA made a position statement to the Commission on the content of the future guidelines in April 2016. We believes that the guidelines should help organisations report risks on non-financial elements by using an enterprise risk management (ERM) approach.

They should go beyond the underlying principles of the NFR Directive and refer to frameworks, based on a level of practicality and acceptance by the business community.

In this respect, FERMA will argue that the work of our national risk management associations should be recognised as relevant frameworks that will facilitate the disclosure of risks for non-financial elements.

These include the “Risk Manager Framework” developed by AMRAE and the “Structured approach to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and the requirements of ISO 31000” developed by Airmic in collaboration with the public sector risk management association Alarm and the Institute of Risk Management (IRM).

The deadline for the EU member states to transpose the NFR Directive is 6 December 2016. Large organisations falling under the scope of the Directive will then start to apply its provisions for the 2017 financial year.