“STOP THE CLOCK” DIRECTIVE PUBLISHED IN EU OJ
Last week, the Directive postponing the dates of application of certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements, as well as the transposition deadline of the due diligence provisions was published in the Official Journal of the EU, following its formal approval by the Parliament and the Council.
For reference, the Directive forms part of the ‘Omnibus I’ package adopted by the Commission at the end of February 2025 to simplify EU legislation in the field of sustainability, amending the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and EU Taxonomy for sustainable economic activities. The published text postpones by two years the entry into application of the CSRD requirements for large companies that have not yet started reporting (from 2025 to 2027), as well as listed SMEs (from 2026 to 2028), and by one year (from July 2026 to July 2027) the transposition deadline and the first phase of the application (covering the largest companies) of the CSDDD.
MEPs and Member States are currently discussing the proposal amending some provisions of the CSRD, CSDDD and Taxonomy to streamline the reporting requirements and reduce administrative burden to small and medium-sized companies. This week, a first exchange of views on this proposal took place at the JURI committee meeting of the European Parliament, highlighting a clear divide between MEPs proposing to cut reporting requirements even further to support companies’ competitiveness and MEPs supporting the need to maintain the initial goal of these laws, namely providing information to investors about environment and human rights protection. CLECAT will continue to engage with MEPs and Members States to alleviate administrative pressures, enhancing operational flexibility for logistics companies while providing resources to drive the decarbonisation of their activities.