By letter of November 25, 2021 to the European Parliament (ECON) and the Council (ECOFIN), the European Commission has informed that the process for the adoption of the draft regulatory technical standards submitted by the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities on October 22, 2022 under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (STDR, Articles 8(4), 9(6) and 11(5)) cannot be finalized within the ordinary three-month period. Moreover, the Commission has announced that the date of application of the Delegated Regulation which will lay down, in a single act, the aforesaid RTS together with the other regulatory technical standards under the SFDR (already submitted by the Joint Committee) will be deferred to January 1^st, 2023.

The need to further postpone the date of application of the delegated act – compared to the date, which was previously announced, of July 1^st, 2022 and to the entrance into application of the SFDR on last March 10 – is due to the length and technical detail of those RTS (13 in total), the time of their submission and the intent to facilitate the smooth implementation of the delegated act by product manufacturers, financial advisors and competent authorities.

In the letter in question, the Commission also points out that, in view of the above, financial market participants which publish the statement concerning the adverse sustainability impacts (pursuant to Article 4(1)(a), 4(3) or 4(4) of SFDR) will have to publish the disclosure on principal adverse impacts in accordance with the delegated act the first time by June 30, 2023, with reference to the period from January 1^st, 2022 until December 31, 2022.

Letter of European Commission of 25 November 2021 - Information regarding regulatory technical standards under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation 2019/2088