(fra kommisjonsforordningen)

(1) Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council amended Directive 2013/34/EU to introduce into that Directive certain additional sustainability reporting requirements. 

(2) Appendix C of ESRS 1 in Annex I to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 allows certain undertakings to omit from their reporting certain sustainability information for the first year, or years, of preparation of their sustainability statement. 

(3) On 26 February 2025, the Commission adopted the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directives 2006/43/EC, 2013/34/EU, (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements (‘the Omnibus Simplification Package’)26, which proposes, inter alia, a number of amendments to the sustainability reporting requirements introduced by Directive (EU) 2022/2464. In particular, the Commission proposes to reduce the number of undertakings subject to those sustainability reporting requirements. According to the Commission’s proposal, only large undertakings with more than 1000 employees would remain subject to the requirement to report sustainability information. As part of that Omnibus Simplification Package, the Commission also proposed to amend Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2022/2464 to defer the dates from which Member States are to apply the reporting requirements for those undertakings that would have to report for the first time for financial years 2025 and 2026 (’stop-the-clock’ proposal). The European Parliament and the Council adopted that stop-the-clock proposal without substantial modifications as Directive (EU) 2025/794 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which entered into force on 17 April 2025. However, in order not to prejudge the outcome of the legislative procedure on the Commission’s proposal to amend the sustainability reporting requirements, and in particular the provisions setting out which undertakings will be subject to the reporting requirements in the future, Directive (EU) 2025/794 has not deferred the dates from which Member States are to apply the reporting requirements for undertakings that are to report for the first time with respect to financial year 2024. 

(4) Pursuant to the existing timetable of Appendix C of ESRS 1 of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772, undertakings that need to report sustainability information already with respect to financial year 2024 will be subject to a further phasing in of various reporting requirements with respect to financial years 2025 and 2026. Moreover, undertakings with more than 750 employees will not benefit from the same phase-in provisions as other undertakings that are subject to the sustainability reporting requirements. It would not be reasonable to require undertakings to comply with additional reporting requirements when the Commission has made a proposal to ensure that those undertakings will subsequently not have to report any information. Moreover, it would be contrary to the burden reduction objective of the Omnibus Simplification Package to prevent undertakings with more than 750 employees from benefitting from the same phase-in provisions as other undertakings that are subject to the sustainability reporting requirements, especially for those sustainability reporting requirements that are most challenging for undertakings, that is to say the topical standards ESRS E4 (biodiversity and ecosystems), ESRS S2 (workers in the value chain), ESRS S3 (affected communities) and ESRS S4 (consumers and end-users) that are laid down in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772. 

(5) Pursuant to ESRS 2, paragraph 17, of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772, an undertaking or a group with up to 750 employees that uses the temporary exemptions in accordance with Appendix C of ESRS 1 for a complete topical standard must nevertheless report certain summarised information on the topic concerned if that undertaking or group has concluded that the topic in question is material. If the temporary exemptions set out in Appendix C of ESRS 1 for a complete topical standard should be applicable also by undertakings with more than 750 employees, it would be necessary – for reasons of consistency – to require the application of ESRS 2, paragraph 17, by any undertaking that uses the temporary exemptions in accordance with Appendix C of ESRS, including the undertakings or groups with more than 750 employees that are to report from financial year 2024. 

(6) It is therefore necessary to adapt the phasing-in timetable of Appendix C of ESRS 1 of Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772, and to amend paragraph 17 of ESRS 2 of that Delegated Regulation, accordingly. 

(7) To enable the undertakings concerned to benefit from that adaptation as soon as possible, this Regulation should enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. 

(8) On 30 April 2025 the Commission consulted Member States on this draft delegated act during a joint meeting of the Member States’ Expert Group on Sustainable Finance and the Accounting Regulatory Committee, in accordance with the requirements of Article 49(3b), third subparagraph, of Directive 2013/34/EU,