The European Commission adopted Friday revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and a voluntary reporting standard for smaller companies.
ESRS cover environmental, social, and governance issues, including climate change, biodiversity and human rights. They provide information for investors and other stakeholders to understand the sustainability-related risks to which companies are exposed and their impacts on people and the environment.
The revised standards adopted by the Commission are designed to reduce administrative burdens for EU businesses while maintaining high-quality disclosures, says the EU executive. They form part pf the EU’s Omnibus I simplification package, which it says streamlines sustainability reporting in the EU and reduces the number of companies in scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
The revised ESRS are shorter and clearer, add new flexibilities, and streamline key processes. They reduce the number of mandatory datapoints by over 60% and the total number of datapoints by over 70%. These changes are expected to reduce reporting costs by more than 30% per company, in line with the Commission’s target of reducing burdens associated with reporting requirements by 25%.
The revised standards take into account the technical advice from EFRAG (previously known as European Financial Reporting Advisory Group), which was informed by stakeholder input gathered in spring 2025 and a public consultation on EFRAG’s drafts in summer 2025. The Commission is proposing targeted adjustments to further ease the reporting burden without undermining the CSRD’s policy objectives and sought stakeholders’ views in a Have Your Say consultation this spring.
The voluntary reporting standard provides a single, proportionate reference framework for sustainability reporting by smaller companies outside the scope of the CSRD. It will make it easier for companies not covered by the CSRD to respond to specific requests for sustainability information from large financial institutions and companies. It also establishes a value chain cap, meaning that companies subject to the CSRD cannot require companies in their value chains to provide more information than what is covered by the voluntary standard.
The delegated act revising the ESRS and the delegated act establishing the voluntary reporting standard will now be transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU for scrutiny. The measures will apply once the scrutiny period of 2 months, which can be prolonged by a further 2 months, is over.
