EFRAG Sustainability Board Chair Lopatta Steps Down After 5 Months

Kerstin Lopatta resigned as chair of EFRAG’s Sustainability Reporting Board on September 30, five months into a three-year term, leaving the body behind EFRAG ESRS simplification without a permanent head.

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group announced on October 8 that its General Assembly had appointed Kristian Koktvedgaard as Acting Chair with immediate effect. He will serve until a new chair is appointed.

For finance teams the practical question is whether the change disturbs the revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards. It does not touch the legal timetable. The Commission adopted the simplified standards on July 3, and they were published in the Official Journal on September 21.

What EFRAG has said about the resignation

EFRAG’s statement thanked Lopatta for her “significant contribution to EFRAG’s sustainability reporting work” and her commitment to European sustainability reporting through leading positions on the board since 2022. It gave no reason for her departure.

Press reports have pointed to disagreements over governance. EFRAG has not confirmed that account, and Lopatta has not published her own explanation.

The strongest public signal comes from Germany’s standard-setter. Georg Lanfermann, president of the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany, said the organisation “deeply regretted” the resignation and that Lopatta “was prevented from effectively fulfilling the mandate entrusted to her by the EU institutions.”

“The circumstances surrounding Kerstin Lopatta’s resignation should be thoroughly reviewed by EFRAG and taken into account as part of a wider governance reform, which is urgently needed.”

Georg Lanfermann, President, Accounting Standards Committee of Germany

Lopatta sat on the German committee’s Sustainability Reporting Technical Committee from 2021 until early 2026. The committee has not said what prevented her from carrying out the mandate.

Who leads the board now

Koktvedgaard has been a member of the board since it was established in 2022. He is head of VAT, auditing, accounting and reporting at the Confederation of Danish Industries and chairs the BusinessEurope Accounting Sounding Board.

EFRAG’s governance page now lists him as Acting EFRAG SRB Chair. Simon Braaksma is vice-chair.

EFRAG has not given a date for a permanent appointment. The process is set by the board’s rules rather than by EFRAG alone: the European Commission nominates the chair after hearing the European Parliament and the Council.

Lopatta’s own route took weeks. EFRAG’s announcement of her appointment came in April 2026, and her term began on May 1. A replacement cannot be named faster than three institutions can agree on one.

Where EFRAG ESRS simplification stands

The standards-writing stage is finished. EFRAG delivered its technical advice on 12 draft simplified standards to the Commission in December 2025. The Commission published its own draft on May 6, closed a four-week comment period on June 3 with more than 400 responses, and adopted the final act on July 3.

The act is Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1563. It replaces Annexes I and II of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 and enters into force on November 10, 2026.

The Commission said the revised standards cut mandatory datapoints by more than 60% and total datapoints by more than 70%. It expects per-company reporting costs to fall by more than 30%. Double materiality is retained.

The revised standards apply to financial years beginning on or after January 1, 2027. A voluntary standard for companies outside the CSRD scope, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1560, entered into force on September 24.

Parliament and the Council had a two-month scrutiny period, extendable by two months, and the publication on September 21 means it ran its course. Lopatta resigned nine days after the standards appeared in the Official Journal.

What the change means for finance teams

The leadership gap does not move any reporting deadline. Companies reporting for financial years beginning in 2026 have three options: apply the 2023 standards as amended by the 2025 “quick fix”, apply the revised standards, or combine the two. Whichever they choose, they must disclose which version they used.

The Commission also extended relief on anticipated financial effects after the May draft. Wave one companies may omit all such information before financial year 2028 and quantitative information before financial year 2030. Other entities may omit it for their first two reporting years and quantitative data for their first four.

Firms building 2026 and 2027 reporting processes should plan against the legal text, not the board’s staffing. Sourcing the remaining datapoints from ledgers and operational systems is a data integration task that does not depend on who chairs a committee in Brussels. The assurance side is covered in Accountio’s guide to what carbon audits require under the CSRD.

Smaller clients outside the directive’s scope can use the voluntary standard as a base. Accountio’s VSME sustainability report pack is built for that case.

The open questions around the board

What EFRAG has not said is whether any of its remaining sustainability workstreams slip while the chair is vacant. The board is responsible for all of the organisation’s sustainability reporting positions, including technical advice to the Commission on amendments to the standards.

That advisory role is where an acting chair matters. Any future Commission request to amend the standards would land on a board without a permanent leader and, on Lanfermann’s account, without settled governance.

The ASCG’s call for a wider governance reform will test whether the Commission and EFRAG treat the resignation as a personnel matter or a structural one. EFRAG has not responded to that call.

The next dates are fixed. The revised ESRS enter into force on November 10, and the first reports under them cover financial years beginning on January 1, 2027. The date of the next permanent chair is not.