EU CSRD — the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

What the EU CSRD is

The EU CSRD — the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive — is Directive (EU) 2022/2464, adopted in December 2022.

It does not stand alone: it works by amending the Accounting Directive, so the rules a company actually follows are in Articles 19a and 29a of Directive 2013/34/EU.

An in-scope company publishes a sustainability statement in its management report.

The statement covers both how sustainability matters affect the company and how the company affects people and the environment — double materiality.

It is written against the European Sustainability Reporting Standards and checked by an assurance provider.

The CSRD replaced the reporting rules of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive, which is spent but was never formally repealed.

Who is in scope of the EU CSRD after Omnibus I

Directive (EU) 2026/470, known as Omnibus I, was published on 26 February 2026 and entered into force on 18 March 2026.

It replaced the old size tests with one cumulative test: an undertaking is in scope when it exceeds a net turnover of €450 million and an average of 1,000 employees during the financial year.

Both limbs must be exceeded; meeting one is not enough.

The same test applies to EU parent undertakings on a consolidated basis, for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

Listed SMEs are out entirely: the listed-SME standard in Article 29c was deleted, along with the power to adopt sector-specific ESRS.

The Commission puts the remaining population at about 6,753 companies — 1,535 that have already reported and 5,218 that will report for the first time.

That is a reduction of about 85% on the original scope.

EU CSRD timeline

The dates that matter now, each from the instrument that sets it.

Non-EU groups under the EU CSRD — Article 40a

A group headquartered outside the EU is caught through Article 40a of the Accounting Directive.

The test has two parts: more than €450 million of net turnover in the EU in each of the last two consecutive financial years, and an EU subsidiary or branch with net turnover above €200 million.

It applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2028, so the first reports are due in 2029.

The standard those groups will report against, ESRS-40a, is still an exposure draft: EFRAG is consulting until 31 October 2026 and its technical advice is due in January 2027.

For how this reaches a UK-headquartered group, see CSRD for UK companies.

What companies report: the ESRS

The content of a CSRD report comes from the European Sustainability Reporting Standards: two cross-cutting standards (ESRS 1 and ESRS 2) and ten topical ones (E1–E5, S1–S4 and G1).

A revised set was published in the Official Journal on 21 September 2026 as Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1563.

It enters into force on 10 November 2026 and is mandatory for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

For financial year 2026 a company chooses one of three versions, and must state which it used:

• The 2023 ESRS, as last amended by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1416
• The 2023 ESRS with eight named reliefs from the revised set, including the top-down materiality approach and value-chain limitations
• The revised ESRS in full

The full standard-by-standard picture is on our European Sustainability Reporting Standards page.

Assurance under the CSRD

The sustainability statement needs a limited assurance opinion, normally from the statutory auditor.

The opinion covers compliance with the ESRS, the process used to identify what is reported, and the EU Taxonomy disclosures.

Omnibus I removed the Commission's power to require reasonable assurance, so there is no legislated move to a higher level.

The Commission must adopt limited-assurance standards by 1 July 2027.

The value-chain cap

Omnibus I protects smaller companies in a reporter's value chain from open-ended data requests.

An undertaking with an average of 1,000 employees or fewer may decline to give a CSRD reporter information beyond the voluntary standard.

That standard is Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1560, in force from 24 September 2026.

The cap covers only the datapoints listed in its Annex II, and applies from financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

It limits requests made for CSRD reporting only; information asked for other reasons is outside it.

Transposition into national law

The EU CSRD is a directive, so each Member State has to write it into national law.

For the Omnibus I changes to the CSRD the deadline is 19 March 2027.

Until a Member State transposes, the new national rules — including the value-chain cap — do not yet bind companies there.

Check the law of each Member State where your group has in-scope entities, not only the directive.

EU CSRD: frequently asked questions