Europe’s voice in Corporate Reporting. Who might this be? If we were to guess, many might choose the IFRS, International Financial Reporting Standards but by name this organisation is international and not limited to Europe. EFRAG is the organisation that considers itself to be Europe’s voice in Corporate Reporting. Back in 2001 the European Commission encouraged the private sector to set up an organisation to provide it with technical advice. They called themselves EFRAG – European Financial Reporting Advisory Group.
On my first visit to their site, I read their Exposure Drafts and I came across this lovely sentence at the beginning of the very first one I chose:
“2.12 EFRAG working groups meetings (including EFRAG FIWG, EFRAG RRAWG, EFRAG IAWG, EFRAG Academic Panel, EFRAG Connectivity Panel and EFRAG User panel) are not public unless held jointly with EFRAG FR TEG or EFRAG FRB. EFRAG FR TEG receives the feedback from the working groups discussion in the form of a working group or advisory panel Chair’s report.” [1]
I thought the FR in the EFRAG FR TEG might have something to do with France, but I abandoned that idea when I saw the FRB in the next set of initials. I should have known that FR is financial reporting and the B is a board responsible for the financial reporting. I guessed after a little thought that WG might be a working group, but I never guessed that a TEG is a technical expert group. Three others FIWG, RRAWG, or IAWG were impossible to guess. They are clearly working groups. The F in FIWG must represent ‘financial’ I thought, and possibly the I represents ‘information’. But no, FIWG is the Financial Instruments Working Group. I had to search the site for several minutes to find that RRA means rate-regulated activities and we already know what WG means.
As well as groups and boards they also have committees, one they call the DPC, the Administrative Board Due Process Committee, which has some procedures they call DPP: due process procedures. They give acronyms to panels too. CAP is the Connectivity Advisory Panel which provides input to the EFRAG Secretariat contributing to the development of connectivity project deliverables. Not to forget the forums especially the ESRS Digital Reporting Consultative Forum (ESRS DRCF) which advises the secretariat. Finally, they have two pillars which make up EFRAG, a Financial Reporting Pillar and a Sustainability Reporting Pillar which luckily they do not recognise with acronyms.
The ultimate acronym I had never heard of, perhaps because I am not an expert in Belgian law, I found in the statement:
“EFRAG is an AISBL established in conformity with Belgian law.”
An AISBL is an ‘association internationale sans but lucratif’ or literally an international non-profit association governed under Belgian law.
Europe’s voice in corporate reporting, it seems, speaks largely in acronyms in their groups, boards, committees, panels and pillars.
[1] Exposure Draft, EFRAG Due Process Procedures for the EFRAG Financial Reporting Activities, September 2024. https://www.efrag.org/sites/default/files/sites/webpublishing/SiteAssets/EFRAG%20Exposure%20Draft%20-%20FR%20Due%20Process%20Procedures-September%202024.pdf