The ESRS standards are reporting standards for sustainability within the EU. The ESRS standards are an integral part of the CSRD, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive of the European Parliament and the Council. This means that the ESRS reporting standards are mandatory. The adoption of the first set of 12 standards by the Commission is considered a significant step to promote sustainable practices and transparency in companies and to contribute to their comparability. This is because the new reporting requirements herald major changes in sustainability reporting and these will affect around 50,000 companies based in the EU. However, subsidiaries, branches abroad and companies that carry out a large part of their business activities in the EU area may also be indirectly affected, which is why the scope of impact can be significantly broader.