EU Taxonomy Regulation Screening Criteria and Documentation

Eligibility is a classification step: identify whether the activity is described in the Taxonomy delegated acts. The Article 8 Disclosures Delegated Act defines a Taxonomy-eligible economic activity as one described in delegated acts, regardless of whether it meets any or all of the technical screening criteria.

Alignment is a stricter conclusion. The Taxonomy Regulation requires an aligned activity to contribute substantially to at least one environmental objective, avoid significant harm to the other objectives, meet minimum safeguards, and comply with the Commission's technical screening criteria.

For each eligible activity, the evidence file should quote or reference the exact substantial-contribution criteria and each DNSH criterion that applies to the activity. The Taxonomy Regulation says technical screening criteria should identify relevant contributions, specify minimum requirements to avoid significant harm, be quantitative with thresholds where possible and otherwise qualitative, and facilitate verification of compliance.

The Commission notice narrows what checking compliance means in practice: collect and assess relevant information to determine whether the activity fulfils the conditions in the technical screening criteria. Where a criterion is not relevant to the specific activity, the disclosure should explain why the element is not involved rather than silently omitting it.

A substantial-contribution result is not enough for alignment. Article 3 requires DNSH and minimum safeguards alongside technical screening criteria, and the Commission notice states that all substantial-contribution criteria, DNSH criteria, and minimum safeguards must be met for an activity to be considered Taxonomy-aligned.

Minimum safeguards documentation should point to procedures that align the undertaking's activity with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including the ILO fundamental principles and rights identified in Article 18.

Article 8 requires undertakings in scope to disclose how and to what extent their activities are associated with environmentally sustainable economic activities. For non-financial undertakings, the Regulation identifies the proportions of turnover, capital expenditure, and operating expenditure linked to qualifying activities.

The Disclosures Delegated Act turns that into a documentation task: non-financial undertakings disclose the specified information in tabular form using templates, calculate turnover, CapEx, and OpEx KPIs, explain how amounts were determined and allocated, and avoid double counting across activities and objectives.

Screening criteria are not static. Article 19 requires the Commission to regularly review technical screening criteria and, where appropriate, amend delegated acts in line with scientific and technological developments. The Commission notice explains that criteria can become stricter over time.

A reusable documentation pack should therefore carry the delegated-act version, the assessment date, and the reason a prior evidence item remains valid. This is especially important where a technical threshold, DNSH appendix, verification requirement, or CapEx plan assumption is reused in a later reporting cycle.