The EU Council and Parliament reached a provisional deal to simplify sustainability reporting and due diligence, boosting competitiveness. The deal reduces reporting burdens under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), limits the impact on smaller companies, and raises thresholds for large companies to focus on where they can make the greatest impact.
Marie Bjerre, Denmark’s Minister for European Affairs, said, “Today we delivered on our promise to remove burdens and rules and boost EU’s competitiveness. This is an important step towards our common goal to create a more favourable business environment to help our companies grow and innovate.” Morten Bødskov, Denmark’s Minister for Industry, added that the new rules allow companies to focus on core business, creating jobs and supporting green investments.
Under the agreement, CSRD thresholds now apply to companies with over 1,000 employees or net turnover above approximately $490 million, while CS3D thresholds cover firms with at least 5,000 employees and $1.63 billion net turnover. Companies can prioritize assessing adverse impacts in the most relevant parts of their value chains and rely on reasonably available information. The agreement also postpones the CS3D transposition deadline to 26 July 2028, with compliance required by July 2029, and caps penalties at 3% of net worldwide turnover.
