⭕With 427 votes for, 221 against and 14 abstentions, the European Parliament today (1/4) voted to fast-track its work on the ‘stop-the-clock’ proposal that is part of the ‘Omnibus I’ package.
The European Parliament will now decide on April 3 whether to postpone
🌿by two years the application of CSRD requirements for large 2nd wave companies and for listed SMEs (3rd wave), due to report in 2026 (on FY 2025) and 2027 (on FY 2026) respectively.
🌿by one year the 1st wave of application of CSDDD (to 26 July 2028).
On March 26 the Council, which brings together member states’ ministers, already endorsed the Commission proposal on delayed application. If MEPs endorse that text on Thursday, the draft rules would only need formal approval by the Council to enter into force.
⭕In parallel, on March 28, EFRAG was officially tasked with providing technical advice, together with a cost-benefit analysis, to be considered by the Commission when proposing to adopt a delegated act to revise and simplify the existing European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
The Commission aims to “alleviate unnecessary administrative burdens while still meeting the core policy objectives of the European Green Deal”.
🌿The objective is to simplify the structure and presentation of the standards, and to reduce the number of mandatory ESRS datapoints without undermining interoperability with global reporting standards and without prejudice to the materiality assessment of each undertaking.
🌿The revision will clarify provisions that are deemed unclear. It will improve consistency with other pieces of EU legislation.
🌿It will provide clearer instructions on how to apply the materiality principle, to ensure that undertakings only report material information, and to reduce the risk that assurance service providers inadvertently encourage undertakings to report information that is not necessary or dedicate excessive resources to the materiality assessment process.
🌿It will also be critically important to engage with companies that now have direct experience of implementing ESRS and with the users of sustainability statements to better understand which datapoints they consider most critical.
EFRAG has been asked to provide its technical advice by 31 October 2025. However, this date is subject to change depending on the pace and conclusion of negotiations between the co-legislators.
The aim is allow the Commission to adopt the corresponding delegated act in time for companies to apply the revised standards for reporting covering financial year 2027.
Sources:
#getCSRDready, #CSRD, #ESRS, #VSME