CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Directive (EU) 2022/2464, requires companies in scope to publish sustainability information in their management report, prepared under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and subject to limited assurance. It amended the Accounting Directive and replaced the lighter regime of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive. The first companies, those already reporting under the old regime, reported on financial year 2024.

The CSRD is also one of the clearest recent examples of a regime that changed after adoption, twice:

• The stop-the-clock directive, Directive (EU) 2025/794, adopted on 14 April 2025 and published on 16 April 2025, postponed by two years the start of reporting for the companies due to report next, the remaining large companies and listed SMEs.
• The Omnibus I directive, Directive (EU) 2026/470, published in the Official Journal on 26 February 2026 and in force since 18 March 2026, narrows the scope to companies with more than 1,000 employees and net turnover above EUR 450 million, with transposition due by 19 March 2027, according to the Legislative Observatory's procedure file. The same directive also amended the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

The lesson reaches beyond sustainability reporting to lifecycle tracking. A company that scoped its reporting on the 2022 text and never re-ran the assessment after April 2025 and February 2026 may be preparing reports it no longer has to publish, or missing a national rule that still applies. Because a directive binds companies through each member state's transposing law, every impact assessment should cite the national measure alongside the directive, and should be re-opened whenever either one changes.

This entry is general information, not legal advice.