A vote could come any day now on a European Commission initiative to implement new non-financial disclosures for companies, including transparency on their sustainability, diversity, and environmental efforts and policies.The potential vote comes on the heels of the December release of the International Integrated Reporting Council's final version a framework for integrated reporting, a global push to rethink stakeholder communications on financial stability and sustainability.

If a vote does happen, it will cap weeks of debate among commissioners, who started down that path with April 2013 proposals to amend accounting directives and increase required disclosures from European companies on non-financial matters. Among the matters that could require greater transparency: human rights and social justice, managerial diversity, and anti-corruption efforts.

In August, draft guidance issued by the U.K.'s Financial Reporting Council was praised by IIRC as advancing the cause of this new disclosure regime by underpinning new regulations on narrative reporting that went into effect that year for UK listed companies.

“I welcome the FRC's encouragement of innovation and experimentation in reporting, which should support a shift in the mind-set of a business away from rigid compliance and towards the better communication of its individual value creation story for its providers of financial capital,” Paul Druckman, chief executive officer of the IIRC, said in a statement, adding that "the strategic report has its roots in the UK Companies Act."

The International Integrated Reporting () Framework, released late last year, defines an integrated report as “a concise communication about how an organization's strategy, governance, performance, and prospects, in the context of its external environment, lead to the creation of value.” It expands upon traditional financial metrics and includes material environmental and social matters. The release of the framework followed a three-month global consultation.

Principles that underpin the preparation of an integrated report are detailed in the framework. It should, for example:

Provide insight into the organization's strategy, and how it relates to the organization's ability to create value in the short, medium and long term.

Show a holistic picture of the interrelatedness, and dependencies between factors that affect the organization's ability to create value over time.

Provide insight into the nature and quality of the organization's relationships with its key stakeholders, including how the organization understands, takes into account, and responds to their legitimate needs and interests.

The framework's principles-based approach will be used to accelerate the adoption of integrated reporting around the world, where it is currently being trialed by more than 100 companies in 25 countries.

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