The study was initiated by #WeAreEurope, and a number of academic centers, organizations, and experts were involved in its implementation and analysis of the results. The entire report can be downloaded from this page.
The questionnaire was completed by 1,062 participants. All of them are from companies covered by the CSRD, and as many as 40% are representatives of management boards. This is a very high level of participation in the survey, unprecedented in the EU when it comes to sustainable development reporting. The most extensive consultations organized by the European Commission or EFRAG (e.g., on the ESRS draft in 2022 or the simplification of standards in April 2025) yielded a few hundred responses at most. We are therefore dealing with a survey whose results are representative of the population of all large companies in the EU.
The initial overall results already show how the Commission's proposals fall short of companies' expectations. 61% of respondents are at least partially satisfied with the current form of the CSRD, although only 7% are very satisfied. On the other hand, only 17% are at least partially dissatisfied with the CSRD. Opinions on the Omnibus are almost exactly the opposite. Only 25% of company representatives are at least partially satisfied with it (only 3% are very satisfied), while as many as 51% are partially or very dissatisfied with the Commission's proposals. Even those dissatisfied with the CSRD do not widely support the Omnibus (39% satisfied versus 38% dissatisfied).
Respondents obviously see the weaknesses of the directive. The most frequently mentioned ones include insufficient guidelines to support reporting (69%), difficulties in preparing reports (63%), overly strict audit requirements (53%), and insufficient time for preparation (47%). Survey participants disagree with the Commission's assertion that the CSRD reduces the competitiveness of European companies; 37% people support this statement, while 48% disagree.
The vast majority of companies (73%) criticize the Commission's flagship deregulation idea of limiting reporting requirements to companies with more than 1,000 employees. Setting the limit at 500 employees is supported by nearly half (46%) of respondents.
Almost all (90%) would like to see reporting requirements for non-EU companies aligned with those for European companies. This is a very interesting review of the Commission's proposal, which seeks to exempt almost all non-European companies doing business in the EU from reporting.
Among the strengths of CSRD, respondents primarily recognize the transparency and comparability of reports (89%), the strengthening of strategic, risk, and impact management (89%), support for achieving the EU's sustainable development goals (79%), strengthening the power and sovereignty of the Union (62%), and simplifying corporate reporting by integrating all information and data into a single report (54%).
I encourage you to study the entire report. It contains references to various ideas on how CSRD should be strengthened to make reporting easier for companies, rather than dismantling the entire reporting system. You can also read detailed data cross-sections and see how representatives of companies of different sizes, performing different functions and coming from different EU regions responded.
If you would like to read something else interesting besides this report, I recommend the position statement of 90 economists from various EU countries who have jointly commented on the Commission's proposal. It is available on the website of the Polish Institute for Human Rights and Business. In it, you will find a detailed, straightforward, and understandable argument that breaks down and refutes the Commission's claim that due diligence is responsible for the weaker competitiveness of European companies. I would just like to add that it is a very strange idea to look for the causes of the current situation in a regulation that has not yet come into force 😉
Tomorrow (May 27, 2025) during 2030 Agenda Stakeholder Forum I will have the pleasure of discussing with representatives of the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the UN Global Compact what the EU should do to help companies in their sustainable transformation. I am looking forward to a very interesting conversation and hope to report on it in the next newsletter.
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