Recital 60

(60) The assurance profession distinguishes between limited assurance engagements and reasonable assurance engagements. The conclusion of a limited assurance engagement is usually provided in a negative form of expression by stating that no matter has been identified by the practitioner to conclude that the subject matter is materially misstated. In a limited assurance engagement, the auditor performs fewer tests than in a reasonable assurance engagement. The amount of work for a limited assurance engagement is therefore less than for a reasonable assurance engagement. The amount of work in a reasonable assurance engagement entails extensive procedures including consideration of internal controls of the reporting undertaking and substantive testing, and is therefore significantly greater than in a limited assurance engagement. The conclusion of a reasonable assurance engagement is usually provided in a positive form of expression and results in providing an opinion on the measurement of the subject matter against previously defined criteria. Directive 2013/34/EU requires Member States to ensure that the statutory auditor or audit firm checks whether the non-financial statement or the separate report has been provided. It does not require that an independent provider of assurance services verify the information, although it allows Member States to require such verification where they so wish. The absence of an assurance requirement concerning sustainability reporting, in contrast to the requirement for the statutory auditor to carry out statutory audits based on a reasonable assurance engagement, would threaten the credibility of the sustainability information disclosed, thus failing to meet the needs of the intended users of that information. Although the objective is to have a similar level of assurance for financial and sustainability reporting, the absence of a commonly agreed standard for the assurance of sustainability reporting creates the risk of different understandings and expectations of what a reasonable assurance engagement would consist of for different categories of sustainability information, especially with regard to forward-looking and qualitative disclosures. Therefore, a progressive approach to enhancing the level of the assurance required for sustainability information should be considered, starting with an obligation on the statutory auditor or audit firm to express an opinion about the compliance of the sustainability reporting with Union requirements based on a limited assurance engagement. That opinion should cover the compliance of the sustainability reporting with Union sustainability reporting standards, the process carried out by the undertaking to identify the information reported pursuant to the sustainability reporting standards and compliance with the requirement to mark up sustainability reporting. The auditor should also assess whether the undertaking’s reporting complies with the reporting requirements of Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852. To ensure a common understanding and common expectations of what a reasonable assurance engagement would consist of, the statutory auditor or audit firm should be required to express an opinion based on a reasonable assurance engagement about the compliance of the sustainability reporting with Union requirements, when the Commission adopts assurance standards for reasonable assurance of sustainability reporting by means of delegated acts no later than 1 October 2028, following an assessment to determine if reasonable assurance is feasible for auditors and undertakings. The gradual approach from limited assurance engagements to reasonable assurance engagements would also allow for the progressive development of the assurance market for sustainability information, and of undertakings’ reporting practices. Finally, such gradual approach would phase in the increase in costs for reporting undertakings, given that assurance of sustainability reporting based on a reasonable assurance engagement is more costly than assurance of sustainability reporting based on a limited assurance engagement. Undertakings subject to sustainability reporting requirements should be able to decide to have an assurance opinion on their sustainability reporting based on a reasonable assurance engagement if they so wish, and in such cases they should be deemed to have complied with the obligation to have an opinion based on a limited assurance engagement. The opinion based on a reasonable assurance engagement concerning forward-looking information is only an assurance that such information has been prepared in accordance with applicable standards.

← Recital 59 · All articles · Recital 61 →

Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-08-27 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.