Commission seeks feedback on revised sustainability reporting standards
Today the Commission has launched a one‑month “Have‑Your‑Say” public feedback on draft final versions of revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and a voluntary reporting standard for smaller companies.
These standards aim to cut administrative burden for EU businesses while preserving the quality of sustainability disclosures. They build on the Omnibus I simplification package, which streamlines sustainability reporting in the EU and reduces the number of companies in scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
The draft revised ESRS reduce mandatory datapoints by over 60% and total datapoints by over 70%. The new ESRS are shorter and clearer, introduce new flexibilities for companies, and simplify the materiality assessment used to determine what must be reported. Overall, these changes are expected to reduce reporting costs per company by more than 30%.
The revised ESRS largely build on technical advice from the European Financial Reporting Advisory Groups (EFRAG), the Commission’s independent multi‑stakeholder advisory body on reporting standards. Stakeholders fed into EFRAG’s work in spring 2025, followed by a public consultation on EFRAG’s first draft in summer 2025.
The Commission is proposing targeted adjustments to EFRAG’s advice to further ease the reporting burden without undermining the CSRD’s policy objectives.
The draft voluntary standard is designed to support sustainability reporting by companies not subject to mandatory CSRD requirements. Crucially, it introduces a “value chain cap”: CSRD in‑scope companies cannot require value‑chain partners with 1000 employees or fewer to provide information beyond what is set out in the voluntary standard. The draft voluntary standard is based on EFRAG’s 2024 voluntary SME standard (VSME), which the Commission endorsed through a recommendation in 2025.
Next steps
Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback until 3 June via the portal. The Commission will then adopt the two delegated acts as soon as possible after the consultation closes. They will subsequently be transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council for scrutiny under the no‑objection procedure (two months, extendable by a further two months at the request of either institution) before entering into force.
Respond to the public feedback on revised ESRS
Respond to the public feedback on sustainability reporting standard for voluntary use
