Hungarian ‘ESG Act’ implementing regulations have been published
Detailed rules on the fulfilment of the due diligence obligations of companies for sustainability purposes and the registration process for ESG reports, ESG rating agencies and ESG software have been published in Issue 81 of the Hungarian Offical Journal 2024. Issue 80 also contains regulations about the requirements for accreditation as an ESG consultant and the rules of procedure for accreditation.
The aim of the Regulation is:
Containing also the questionnaire annexed to the ESG report 13/2024. (VIII. 15.) SZTFH Regulation, on the basis of the ESG Act, sets out the detailed rules that allow an objective comparison of companies according to sustainability criteria and the monitoring of their responsibility.
The main screening criteria are
- Establishment of a risk management system: a documented risk management system must be in place to minimise ESG risks, both within the business’s own sphere of responsibility and in the supply chain. The risk management system includes the recording of environmental and social impacts and the analysis of organisational governance impacts, in particular screening, identification, assessment, prioritisation, prevention, elimination, correction and follow-up;
- Develop an internal responsibility strategy and system;
- Conduct regular and ad hoc risk analyses;
- Establish preventive and corrective actions for all identified adverse impacts within the scope of its own business and with its direct suppliers;
- ESG reporting obligation: by preparing an ESG report and completing the questionnaire annexed to the ESG report;
- Declaration of direct suppliers with regard to the risks they face.
The Regulation also includes minimum formal requirements for the preparation of the ESG report.
Temporary, facilitating provision
The ESG reports of companies under Section 1 (1) (a) of the ESG Act for the financial year 2024 and of companies under Section 1 (1) (b) of the ESG Act for the financial year 2025 only have to be pre-audited and do not have to be certified, neither the ESG reports themselves nor the pre-audit results are public and are not published.
Questionnaire annexed to the ESG report
The table in Annex 1 of the SZTFH Regulation contains the questions that form the basis of the ESG reporting and supply chain due diligence.
The questions cover ESG activities of companies in the areas of environment (45 questions), society (41 questions) and corporate governance (14 questions). For the screening of direct suppliers, the questions are adapted to the size of the suppliers, their geographical location and the scope of the questions to be answered.
It is important to underline that direct suppliers cannot commit to answering voluntary questions either in a contract or in a written declaration.
ESG calculator coming soon
For the preparation of the ESG report, the SZTFH will soon provide an ESG calculator to help you calculate the more complex numerical data of the questionnaire.
For more information (in Hungarian), please visit the SZTFH website:
