Irish Region

The European Commission has announced a further postponement – to 1 July 2022 – of the application date for the draft regulatory technical standards under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 on sustainability‐related disclosures in the financial services sector).  The previously anticipated application date had been 1 January 2022.

On 8 July 2021, the European Commission announced (in a letter to the Ecofin Council and to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, jointly) that the draft regulatory technical standards (“RTS”) under Articles 2a(3), 4(6) and (7), 8(3), 9(5), 10(2) and 11(4) of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (“SFDR”) could not be adopted within the timeframe that the Commission had previously anticipated.  Also, EIOPA, ESMA and EBA are currently preparing an additional six draft RTS under the SFDR, based on Articles 8(4), 9(6) and 11(5).

The Commission states that:

• due to the length and technical detail of the draft RTS,
• in view of anticipated amendments that the further draft RTS will make to the already-approved draft RTS dated 4 February 2021, and
• to facilitate the smooth implementation of the standards by product manufacturers, financial advisers and supervisors,

the Commission will bundle all 13 of the RTS in a single delegated act and will defer the date of application by six months, from 1 January 2022 to 1 July 2022.