The #WeAreEurope Mid-Caps Sustainability Reporting Standard (Mid-Caps SRS) is a European collaborative initiative designed to address the urgent need for a tailored, strategic, and pragmatic sustainability reporting framework for European mid-cap companies. 

Currently, the 38.000 European Mid-caps face a regulatory void for ESG reporting: existing standards (VSME and CSRD) are either too simplistic or overly complex, and their final version is not yet available, leaving mid-caps without a suitable tool to meet their ESG reporting obligations.

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Why add another sustainability reporting standard ?

Encouraged by the European Commission to adopt a voluntary simplified approach through the VSME framework, many companies with fewer than 1,000 employees were initially drawn to this seemingly easier path.

However, at #WeAreEurope, we are seeing a different reality: more and more companies — especially structured mid-cap firms with 250 to 1,000 employees — are now realizing that this framework is not suited to their actual needs.

Why ?

• Too simplistic to reflect their complexity
• VSME was originally designed for small and micro-enterprises with fewer than 250 employees. It does not account for the more sophisticated structures and operations of larger organizations.
• Inadequate for their investors
• Investors require transparent, structured, and comparable ESG data to assess and manage risk effectively.
• Neither strategic nor tailored
• By omitting double materiality, value chain analysis, stakeholder mapping, and the description of strategies and policies, the VSME framework misses the essentials.

As a result, these mid-caps firms now face a methodological deadlock: 

• The “complete” CSRD standard is intended for large companies, those in wave 1, and is currently being reworked.
• VSME, which once appeared to be as an ideal solution has proven to be a dead end.

Mid-caps, once again, have been overlooked. No dedicated standard has been developed for them, and in the meantime, uncertainty prevails while deadlines are fast approaching. 

It is precisely to fill this gap that we have launched a collaborative initiative within #WeAreEurope. It's goal: Our ambition is for it to become the benchmark for all European mid-caps and their stakeholders.

How did we proceed to draft the #WeAreEurope mid caps reporting standard ?

A working group was formed with European professionals — including mid-cap companies, consulting firms, ESG platforms, investment funds, and others. This group worked from March to June to define a Sustainability Reporting Standard through a series of collaborative sessions.

The group also developed a set of application requirements to ensure that the standard would be as simple and intuitive as possible for its future users.

Starting in June, the standard entered a second phase of broader testing, open to all interested professionals within the #WeAreEurope network.

Their feedback is helping to refine and enhance the standard in preparation for its wider rollout in the near future.