Brussels, 16 March 2022  - TIC Council welcomes the European Parliament’s amendment to Article 34.3 of Directive 2013/34/EU, which ensures that independent assurance services providers can implement services to companies reports according to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Overall, the European Parliament’s amendments help transform the non-financial reporting to a sustainability reporting in its own right, with the same rigor as used for financial reporting and assurance services. It will contribute to give more transparency and truth for sustainability.

Thanks to the Parliament’s amendments, companies throughout the EU would have the opportunity to choose from a bigger pool of assurance services providers, both auditors and accredited assurance services providers. This should increase competition and services’ availability within the market.

More importantly, the amendment to article 34.3 of Directive 2013/34/EU (compromise amendment 21), will ensure that companies seeking for a science-based verification of their sustainability reports can entrust a sector with long-lasting experience in validating sustainability claims.

“We welcome the efforts of the European Parliament to promote equal footing between the independent assurance services providers and auditing companies in providing their services to the CSRD. Creating fair competition is in the core of the EU’s internal market and we are confident that we can contribute to the successful implementation of the CSRD,” said Hanane Taidi, Director General of TIC Council.

The testing, inspection and certification sector (TIC), who acts as independent assurance service provider, has the technical expertise and professional capacity to verify all claims under CSRD - through laboratory controls, calculations, onsite visits and other specialised services - going beyond documentary checks and significantly reducing false claims.

The TIC Sector has a long-standing experience in the verification of sustainability claims. For example, audits for the Energy Efficiency Directive, ETS, biofuels, the verification of renewable energy equipment’s’ efficiency, as well as verifications against the EU’s Taxonomy Regulation. When using TIC services, companies enhance their transparency and avoid reputational damage for greenwashing, as the TIC sector verifications are multi-fold and backed by decades of in-field expertise. 

Media Contact:

Efthymia Ntivi,

TIC Council Advocacy and Public Affairs Director 

Rue du Commerce 20/22, B-1000 Brussels

tel: +30-945-55-76-01

email: entivi@tic-council.org