Omnibus I: postponement and reduction of the scope of the CSRD and CS3D formally adopted by Council

"With a view to boosting EU competitiveness, the Council gave today its final green light to a simplification of the sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements for companies", announces the Council of the EU on 24/02/2025.

CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) and CS3D (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence) were the first two regulations modified by the Omnibus I of the Commission, which has now proposed a total of ten Omnibuses to amend all major sectors of the EU legislation, from sustainability requirements and chemicals to defence readiness and the common agricultural policy.

The simplification includes a reduction of the scope:

• Sustainability reporting will be required from companies with over 1.000 employees and a net annual turnover of over €450 M;
• Only large corporations with more than 5.000 employees and a net annual turnover of over €1.5 billion have to carry out due diligence;
• Smaller companies with fewer than 1.000 employees will be protected from a shift in responsibility for reporting (imposed by larger actors in their value chain).

It also includes a delay of the entry into force of the regulations and a removal of requirements:

• The obligation for companies to adopt a transition plan for climate change mitigation has been removed;
• The EU harmonised liability regime is also removed;
• Penalties will be limited to a maximum cap of 3% of the company's net worldwide turnover;
• Member States will have one more year to transpose the legislation into their national law;
• Due diligence rules will only apply from July 2029.

The Parliament formally adopted the provisional agreement on the simplification of CSRD and CS3D in Strasbourg on 16/12/2025. 428 MEPs voted for, 218 against, and 17 abstained. Now that the Council formally endorsed the agreement, the text will be published in the coming days in the EU's official journal and will come into force on the twentieth day after its publication.