Considerations on COM(2025)80 - Amendment of Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

 
dossier COM(2025)80 - Amendment of Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain ...
document COM(2025)80 EN
date April 14, 2025
 
table>(1)In its communication of 11 February 2025 entitled ‘A simpler and faster Europe: Communication on implementation and simplification’, the Commission set out a vision for an implementation and simplification agenda that delivers fast and visible improvements for people and business on the ground. That requires more than an incremental approach and the Union is to take bold action to achieve that goal. The European Parliament, the Council, the Commission, the authorities of the Member States at all levels and stakeholders need to work together to streamline and simplify Union, national and regional rules and to implement policies more effectively.
(2)In the context of the Commission’s commitment to reducing reporting burdens and to enhancing competitiveness, it is necessary to introduce targeted amendments to Directives (EU) 2022/2464 (3) and (EU) 2024/1760 (4) of the European Parliament and of the Council in order to achieve those objectives, whilst maintaining the policy objectives of the Green Deal as set out in the Commission’s communication of 11 December 2019 entitled ‘The European Green Deal’ and the Sustainable Finance Action Plan as set out in the Commission’s communication of 8 March 2018 entitled ‘Action Plan: Financing Sustainable Growth’.

(3)Directive (EU) 2022/2464 specifies the dates from which Member States are to apply the sustainability reporting requirements set out in Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (5), with different dates depending on the size of the undertaking concerned. Large undertakings that are public-interest entities with more than 500 employees on average during the financial year and public-interest entities that are parent undertakings of a large group with more than 500 employees on average on its balance sheet dates, on a consolidated basis, during the financial year are to report in 2025 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2024. Other large undertakings and other parent undertakings of a large group are to report in 2026 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. Small and medium-sized undertakings, except micro-undertakings, small and non-complex institutions, captive insurance undertakings and captive reinsurance undertakings are to report in 2027 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026. Considering the ongoing Commission initiatives which aim to simplify certain existing sustainability reporting obligations and to reduce the related administrative burden on undertakings, and in order to provide for legal clarity and to avoid the undertakings currently required to report for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025 and on or after 1 January 2026 incurring unnecessary and avoidable costs, the sustainability reporting requirements for those undertakings should be postponed by two years.

(4)Directive (EU) 2022/2464 specifies the dates from which Member States are to apply the sustainability reporting requirements set out in Directive 2004/109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6), with different dates depending on the size of the issuer concerned. Issuers that are large undertakings with more than 500 employees on average during the financial year and issuers that are parent undertakings of a large group with more than 500 employees on average on its balance sheet dates, on a consolidated basis, during the financial year are to report in 2025 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2024. Other issuers that are large undertakings and other issuers that are parent undertakings of a large group are to report in 2026 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. Issuers that are small and medium-sized undertakings, except micro-undertakings, small and non-complex institutions, captive insurance undertakings and captive reinsurance undertakings are to report in 2027 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026. Considering the ongoing Commission initiatives which aim to simplify certain existing sustainability reporting obligations and to reduce the related administrative burden on undertakings, and in order to provide for legal clarity and to avoid the issuers currently required to report for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025 and on or after 1 January 2026 incurring unnecessary and avoidable costs, the sustainability reporting requirements for those issuers should be postponed by two years.

(5)The date from which Member States are to apply Directive (EU) 2024/1760 should be postponed by one year for the first set of companies that fall within the scope of that Directive in order to give companies more time to prepare for the requirements of that Directive and to provide them with the opportunity to take into account the guidelines to be issued by the Commission on how they should fulfil their due diligence obligations in a practical manner. Furthermore, the application date of 1 January 2029 for the measures necessary to comply with the reporting obligation pursuant to Article 16 of Directive (EU) 2024/1760 regarding the third set of companies that fall within the scope of that Directive should be amended in order to ensure coherence with the respective application dates for the other sets of companies.

(6)Moreover, in the light of a parallel legislative proposal which aims to simplify the sustainability framework and reduce the burden on companies, the deadline for the Member States to transpose Directive (EU) 2024/1760 should be extended by one year in order to take into account possible delays in their ongoing transposition efforts due to possible amendments to that Directive.

(7)Since the objectives of this Directive cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(8)Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 should therefore be amended accordingly. Since the amendment to Directive (EU) 2024/1760 alters the transposition deadline and certain dates of application, all of which fall in the future, Member States would only need to postpone the application dates pursuant to Article 2 of this Directive in the event that they have already transposed Directive (EU) 2024/1760.

(9)In view of the urgency of the matter and to provide legal certainty as soon as possible, it is considered to be appropriate to invoke the exception to the eight-week period provided for in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union, annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.

(10)For reasons of urgency and to provide legal certainty as soon as possible, this Directive should enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,