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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. The Mandatory Non-financial Disclosure in the European Union

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Abstract

In the chapter we focus on the path that led to the issuing of the 2014/95/EU Directive (hereafter EU Directive), and then we deeply analyse two important supranational initiatives, GRI and Integrated Reporting, and their relationships with the EU Directive. The chapter also provides a brief analysis of EU Directive, before examining deeply the Italian Legislative Decree 254/2016 which enacted the EU Directive in the Italian context. The chapter ends with the analysis of the sample on which we carried out our research, preceded by a summary of the main studies on the mandatory NFI disclosure in the Italian context.

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Footnotes
1
It is important to underline that harmonization differs from standardization, as international standardization pushes countries to share the same accounting standards, whilst accounting harmonization results in ‘pressures to bring the accounting standards of different countries into closer harmony with one another’ (Thorell and Whittington 1994).
 
2
For a description of the common themes, the areas of alignment between EU Directive and GRI standards and the possibility to use GRI standards to comply with EU Directive requirements, see GRI (2017).
 
3
The other principles are ‘fair, balanced and understandable’; ‘comprehensive but concise’; ‘strategic and forward-looking’; ‘stakeholder oriented’; and ‘consistent and coherent’ (EU Commission 2017).
 
4
The NF stated the NFS ‘may include internal cross-references or signposting in order to be concise, limit repetition, and provide links to other information … but cross-referencing and signposting should be smart and user-friendly, for instance, by applying a practical rule of “maximum one ‘click’ out of the report”’ (EU Commission 2017).
 
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Metadata
Title
The Mandatory Non-financial Disclosure in the European Union
Author
Stefania Veltri
Copyright Year
2020
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47921-3_3