Limited assurance report of the independent auditor on the sustainability statement

Our conclusion

We have performed a limited assurance engagement on the sustainability statement in the Annual Report 2024 including the information incorporated in the sustainability statement by reference (hereinafter: the sustainability statement) for 2024 of PostNL N.V. based in The Hague, The Netherlands (hereinafter: PostNL or the Company).

Based on the procedures performed and the assurance evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the sustainability statement is not, in all material respects:

• prepared in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) as adopted by the European Commission and in accordance with the double materiality assessment process carried out by the Company to identify the information reported pursuant to the ESRS; and
• compliant with the reporting requirements provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation

Basis for our conclusion

We performed our limited assurance engagement on the sustainability information in accordance with Dutch law, including Dutch Standard 3810N ‘Assurance-opdrachten inzake duurzaamheidsverslaggeving’ (Assurance engagements relating to sustainability reporting) which is a specified Dutch standard that is based on the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised) ’Assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information’. Our responsibilities under this standard are further described in the section ‘Our responsibilities for the assurance engagement on the sustainability statement’ section of our report.

We are independent of PostNL in accordance with the ‘Verordening inzake de onafhankelijkheid van accountants bij assurance-opdrachten’ (ViO, Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, a regulation with respect to independence). Furthermore, we have complied with the ‘Verordening gedrags- en beroepsregels accountants’ (VGBA, Dutch Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants).

We believe the assurance evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our conclusion.

Emphasis of matters

We draw attention to section 1 ‘General disclosures’ in the Sustainability statement. The section ‘Ambition’ sets out that the sustainability statement has been prepared in a context of new sustainability reporting standards requiring entity-specific and temporary interpretations.

The section ‘Statement on due diligence’ explains the ongoing due diligence and double materiality assessment process, including robust engagement with affected stakeholders. Due diligence is an on-going practice that responds to and may trigger changes in the Company’s strategy, business model, activities, business relationships, operating, sourcing and selling contexts. The sustainability statement may not include every impact, risk and opportunity or additional entity-specific disclosure that each individual stakeholder may consider important.

Our conclusion is not modified in respect to these matters.

Limitations to the scope of our assurance engagement

Reasonable assurance has been provided on the non-financial statements reported in the Annual Report 2023, however, not in the context of the new sustainability reporting standards (ESRS). Consequently, the corresponding sustainability information and thereto related disclosures have not been subject to reasonable or limited assurance procedures in the context of the ESRS.

In reporting forward-looking information in accordance with the ESRS, the Board of Management of the Company is required to prepare the forward-looking information on the basis of disclosed assumptions about events that may occur in the future and possible future actions by the Company. The actual outcome is likely to be different since anticipated events frequently do not occur as expected.  Forward-looking information relates to events and actions that have not yet occurred and may never occur. We do not provide assurance on the achievability of this forward-looking information.

The references to external sources or websites in the sustainability information are not part of the sustainability information as included in the scope of our assurance engagement. We therefore do not provide assurance on this information.

Our conclusion is not modified in respect to these matters.

Responsibilities of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board’s for the sustainability statement

The Board of Management is responsible for the preparation of the sustainability statement in accordance with the ESRS, including the double materiality assessment process carried out by the Company as the basis for the sustainability statement and disclosure of material impacts, risks and opportunities in accordance with the ESRS. As part of the preparation of the sustainability statement, management is responsible for compliance with the reporting requirements provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation). The Board of Management is also responsible for selecting and applying additional entity-specific disclosures to enable users to understand the Company’s sustainability-related impacts, risks or opportunities and for determining that these additional entity-specific disclosures are suitable in the circumstances and in accordance with the ESRS.

Furthermore, the Board of Management is responsible for such internal control as it determines is necessary to enable the preparation of the sustainability statement that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

The Supervisory Board is responsible for overseeing the sustainability reporting process including the double materiality assessment process carried out by the Company.

Our responsibilities for the assurance engagement on the sustainability statement

Our responsibility is to plan and perform the assurance engagement in a manner that allows us to obtain sufficient and appropriate assurance evidence for our conclusion.

Our assurance engagement is aimed to obtain a limited level of assurance to determine the plausibility of sustainability information. The procedures vary in nature and timing from, and are less in extent, than for a reasonable assurance engagement. The level of assurance obtained in a limited assurance engagement is therefore substantially less than the assurance that is obtained when a reasonable assurance engagement is performed.

We apply the quality management requirements pursuant to the Nadere voorschriften kwaliteitsmanagement (NV KM, regulations for quality management) and accordingly maintain a comprehensive system of quality management including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Our limited assurance engagement included among others:

• Performing inquiries and an analysis of the external environment and obtaining an understanding of relevant sustainability themes and issues, the characteristics of the Company, its activities and the value chain and its key resources in order to assess the double materiality assessment process carried out by the Company as the basis for the sustainability statement and disclosure of all material sustainability-related impacts, risks and opportunities in accordance with the ESRS.
• Obtaining through inquiries a general understanding of the internal control environment, the Company’s processes for gathering and reporting entity-related and value chain information, the information systems and the Company’s risk assessment process relevant to the preparation of the sustainability statement and for identifying the Company’s activities, determining eligible and aligned economic activities and prepare the disclosures provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation), without obtaining assurance evidence about the implementation, or testing the operating effectiveness, of controls.
• Assessing the double materiality assessment process carried out by the Company and identifying and assessing areas of the sustainability statement, including the disclosures provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation) where misleading or unbalanced information or material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error, are likely to arise (‘selected disclosures’). We designed and performed further assurance procedures aimed at assessing that the sustainability statement is free from material misstatements responsive to this risk analysis.
• Considering whether the description of the double materiality assessment process in the sustainability statement made by the Board of Management appears consistent with the process carried out by the Company;
• Performing analytical review procedures on quantitative information in the sustainability statement, including consideration of data and trends;
• Reading minutes of the meetings of the Board of Management, the Supervisory Board and of other meetings that are important for the sustainability statement;
• Assessing whether the Company’s methods for developing estimates are appropriate and have been consistently applied for selected disclosures. We considered data and trends, however, our procedures did not include testing the data on which the estimates are based or separately developing our own estimates against which to evaluate management’s estimates;
• Analysing, on a limited sample basis, relevant internal and external documentation available to the Company (including publicly available information or information from actors throughout its value chain) for selected disclosures;
• Reading the other information in the Annual Report to identify material inconsistencies, if any, with the sustainability statement;
• Considering whether:
  • the disclosures provided to address the reporting requirements provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation) for each of the environmental objectives, reconcile with the underlying records of the Company and are consistent or coherent with the sustainability statement;
  • the disclosures provided to address the reporting requirements provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 20202/852 (Taxonomy Regulation) appear reasonable, in particular whether the eligible economic activities meet the cumulative conditions to qualify as aligned and whether the technical screening criteria are met; and
  • the key performance indicators disclosures have been defined and calculated in accordance with the Taxonomy reference framework as defined in Appendix 1 Glossary of Terms of the CEAOB Guidelines on limited assurance on sustainability reporting adopted on 30 September 2024 , and in compliance with the reporting requirements provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation), including the format in which the activities are presented;
• Considering the overall presentation, structure and the fundamental qualitative characteristics of information (relevance and faithful representation: complete, neutral and accurate) reported in the sustainability statement, including the reporting requirements provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation); and
• Considering, based on our limited assurance procedures and evaluation of the assurance evidence obtained, whether the sustainability statement as a whole, is free from material misstatements and prepared in accordance with the ESRS.

The Hague, the Netherlands, 24 February 2025

KPMG Accountants N.V.

R.R.J. Smeets RA