Let me remind you that the name Omnibus was mentioned by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a press conference after an informal summit of European Union leaders in Budapest on November 11, 2024 (a recording of the conference is here, (The section on Omnibus begins at around the 28-minute mark). Von der Leyen announced that the Commission would present a draft regulation that could involve changes to, among others, the CSRD Directive, the CSDDD Directive, and the Taxonomy Regulation. She clearly emphasized that the scope of these regulations is appropriate and will not be subject to change; the only modifications may concern the form in which companies are expected to provide information. The aim of the changes is to reduce the administrative burden associated with reporting.
The Commission will address the Omnibus project during its meeting at the end of February 2025. It is expected that this will be a time for making decisions rather than preliminary discussions on the direction of regulation. At present, there is no Omnibus bill, and its possible scope is unknown. It has not been determined whether the Omnibus bill will apply only to the three regulations mentioned above or to other legal provisions as well.
We should not expect CSRD, CSDDD, and Taxonomy to be combined into a single regulation. We are talking about a regulation (directly applicable in all Member States) and two directives (requiring transposition); combining such different regulations into a single document would be extremely difficult from a legislative point of view. The term „Omnibus” should be understood as a regulation that introduces changes to a number of other regulations. Similarly, it can be said that the bill implementing the CSRD directive into Polish law, which has been in the works for several months, is such an "omnibus" because it introduces changes to a number of other laws.
Meetings between the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) and representatives of EFRAG and the European Commission are also likely to take place in February. The JURI Committee is interested in working closely with ESRS standard setters on setting priorities for sustainability reporting.
The Commission recognizes the urgent need to publish a voluntary standard for small and medium-sized enterprises (VSME). It is eagerly awaited not only by the companies themselves, but also by financial institutions and the purchasing departments of large enterprises, which want to base their expectations regarding data transfer by business partners on the requirements contained in the VSME.
At the EFRAG level, the following issues are worth mentioning:
- On December 6, 2024, EFRAG published another package. answers to questions. A period of silence lies ahead of us, meaning that the next set of answers can be expected at the turn of winter and spring 2025.
- The draft implementation guidelines for transition plans (TPIG) are nearing completion. The document has been limited to guidance on how to disclose information about the transition plan. However, in 2025 (probably in the second half of the year), the European Commission will issue clarifications on the criteria to be used to assess whether a transition plan is consistent with the path to limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The TPIG draft will be subject to public consultation in the first quarter of 2024.
I hope that the above information has at least partially satisfied your curiosity. I realize that there is not much information about the decisions that have been made, but there will be time for that later. It is important to stay within the realm of what is certain, or at least very likely.
Finally, I am pleased to share one more piece of information with you – this time completely, 100% certain: we have completely updated the course at MATERIALITY ACADEMY. Taxonomy fundamentals – You're welcome 😊
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