On 16/12, the European Parliament approved the provisional Omnibus I agreement on reduced sustainability reporting and due diligence rules for companies.
The text was adopted with 428 votes in favour, 218 against and 17 abstentions.
The final text will have to be formally approved by Council, but approval is highly likely.
The directive will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal. Member States will have 12 months to transpose the new rules.
⭕ The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – CSRD – will apply for:
- EU companies with over 1,000 employees and a net annual turnover of over €450 million,
- as well as non-EU companies with net turnover in the EU of over €450 million and their subsidiaries and branches generating turnover higher than €200 million in the EU.
➡️Parent companies that are financial holdings (not directly or indirectly involved in the management of their subsidiaries) with subsidiaries having business models and operations independent from one another, may choose not to report according to CSRD.
This excludes cases where companies are closely interconnected through their business activities, for example when the activities of one subsidiary enable or directly support the activities of another subsidiary.
➡️ Member States may exempt 1st wave companies, that had to start reporting from FY 2024 but that now fall out of the new CSRD scope, from reporting on FY 2025 and 2026.
➡️ Companies with fewer than 1,000 employees will not have to provide information to their bigger business partners beyond what will be included in an upcoming delegated act on sustainability reporting standards for voluntary use.
This restriction does not affect information requests from companies for purposes other than their sustainability reporting as required by CSRD, including requests for the purpose of complying with Union requirements to conduct a due diligence process.
➡️Member States are required to ensure that statutory auditors and audit firms carry out the assurance of sustainability reporting in compliance with limited assurance standards to be adopted by the Commission.
According to the text, companies have raised concerns on the work carried out by the assurance providers. To allow adequate time to develop the standard the deadline for its adoption is therefore postponed to 1 July 2027.
➡️ A review clause has been introduced concerning a possible extension of the CSRD’s scope if needed to ensure the Union’s objective of enabling the disclosure of sufficient data on corporate sustainability to mobilise private investments towards EU Green Deal.
Sources:
https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-16702-2025-INIT/en/pdf