In a final vote taken yesterday, the EU have approved an agreement to simplify two key sustainability regulations, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), as part of the Omnibus Package. The final agreement scales back obligations for businesses further than initially proposed as part of the package, summarised below.
Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
- The threshold for companies in scope has been raised to only include those with over 1,000 employees and a net annual turnover greater than €450m (originally 250 employees or €50m), removing approximately 90% of companies that were previously in scope.
- Reporting requirements for those still in scope have been simplified and require less detail than originally proposed.
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)
- The threshold for companies in scope has been raised to only include those with over 5,000 employees and a net annual turnover greater than €1.5b (originally 1,000 employees), leaving only large multinational businesses in scope.
- Companies also have an additional year to comply with the measures (pushed back to July 2029).
Limitations have been introduced to both regulations to reduce the trickle-down impact of information requests on smaller businesses.
