EU Omnibus deal softens CSRD rollback, but still shrinks the field
The European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee and the Council have now struck a provisional Omnibus I deal that again rewrites the scope of EU sustainability reporting and due diligence rules.
Compared with Parliament’s earlier vote, the cut to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is slightly less substantial, but the direction of travel is unchanged: fewer companies in scope, and a lighter rulebook for those that remain.
Under the compromise, CSRD applies only to companies with at least 1,000 employees and €450 million in turnover, with listed SMEs and financial holding companies dropping out altogether. Non-EU companies are in scope only if they generate €450 million in EU revenues. For the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the higher threshold of 5,000 employees and €1.5 billion in revenue stays, climate transition plans stay deleted, and liability remains at national level. Review clauses leave the door ajar for future extensions.
There is no mention of updates to the digital side of things in this latest agreement, so as far as we are aware XHTML plus ESRS tagging still wait on a Regulatory Technical Standard for the digital taxonomy, which presumably regulators will consult on next year.
Nothing is final yet. The provisional agreement must still clear the Legal Affairs Committee vote, Parliament’s plenary and Council endorsement. The speed of the trilogue negotiations were more or less unprecedented, as we understand it, but then the overwhelming message that EU policymakers have been hearing from issuers and users is “decide already”.
Readers who want to explore the details can consult the official European Parliament communication and files on the Omnibus I agreement and its sustainability provisions, and revisit our earlier analysis of the Parliament vote for a deeper dive into the digital reporting implications.
