Editing Corporate transparency (section)

== European Union ==
{{main|List of European Union directives#NFRD}}
Standards concerning corporate transparency in [[European Union]] are scrutinized under Directive 2014/95/EU, referred to as Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). Under this legislation companies have to disclose information regarding employed practices related to environmental protection, social responsibility and treatment of employees, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and bribery and diversity on company boards (in terms of age, gender, educational and professional background). By 2018, companies are required to include non-financial statements in their annual reports. It was found that 60% companies disclose their non-financial information in their annual reports in contrast to 40% favoring a separate document in 2019.<ref name=all>{{cite news |url=https://www.allianceforcorporatetransparency.org/assets/2019_Research_Report%20_Alliance_for_Corporate_Transparency-7d9802a0c18c9f13017d686481bd2d6c6886fea6d9e9c7a5c3cfafea8a48b1c7.pdf |publisher=Alliance for Corporate Transparency |title=The Alliance for Corporate Transparency Research Report 2019 |year=2019 |accessdate=2020-04-25}}</ref>

Businesses with an obligation to publish such information are large public-interest companies with more than 500 employees, which amounts to approximately 6000 companies across European Union. Companies enjoy great flexibility how to disclose relevant information as they can either use international, European or national guidelines. For instance, they can use the [[United Nations Global Compact|UN Global Compact]], the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises or ISO 26000.<ref name=eur>{{cite web |url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/non-financial-reporting_en|title= Non-financial reporting |publisher=European Commission|access-date=24 April 2020}}</ref> Despite enclosed suggestions for guidelines, none is referred to by more than 10% of companies. To better understand the situation, companies are expected to describe their business model in relation to sustainability and strategic risks. This might not be reality as only nearly a half of companies mentioned at least one strategic risk related to sustainability and only 7.2% further described how those risks were being addressed in 2019. The most frequently listed risks where related to climate change (24.9%), environmental challenges (23.9%) and labour issues (23.8%).<ref name=all /> 

As of 20 February 2020, the [[European Commission]] launched a public consultation on the review of the NFRD.<ref name=eur />