“Establishing Institutions Similar to Indicators on Environment, Social Issues and Personality”

Tribune. For months, Europe has been working on revising the mandate to release non-financial information, and today large corporations are required to publish reports on how they take into account environmental protection, shared value or respect for human rights. .

The challenge of this amendment is to establish a common reference system through which all companies can communicate homogeneous indicators in environmental, social and administrative matters. These indicators establish what is commonly called their additional financial performance, which, in conjunction with traditional financial performance, will have their overall performance.

Technical in appearance, this material is actually quite political.

Politics first, because it is of primary interest to citizens. Citizens facing climate emergencies are now increasingly demanding that companies report their environmental impact. However, citizens are not the only voters. They are customers, employees, residents and storekeepers. Nothing can be done by a company without these shareholders, and those in authority, by purchasing, working or investing, to engage it in a responsible process.

Politics in particular, because it opposes different visions of what an additional financial performance of a company should be. The European Union (EU) is not the only power involved in measuring this performance. The United States is also in the process of designing its own indicators. If these become predominant international standards, sustainable growth will be defined by an American perspective.

For the independence and sovereignty of Europe

Access to funding for European companies will be substantial based on these future standards. The imposition of additional financial standards would be a major political error with serious economic consequences. Europe should not be afraid to assert its sovereignty, especially since it has long been at the forefront of this issue.

Europe has already made this mistake, in the early 2000s, for an independent, but Anglo-Saxon organization, by setting accounting standards in line with international financial reporting standards (IFRS). Today, the financial health of companies is valued against the American view of capitalism, debt and equity. This explains the US dominance of valuation agencies, today, companies operating in the additional financial sector (Ocom was acquired by ISS in 2018 and Vigio Eris by Moody’s in 2019).

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