This week’s EU Omnibus developments
The long-awaited Omnibus trialogues are slated to begin next week.
Parliament’s legal affairs committee has now signed off on a preliminary position that will be more widely approved (or not) on Monday.
Better known as JURI, the committee wants the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to apply only to EU companies with more than 1,000 employees and net annual turnover above €450m, and non-EU companies that generate more than €450m of turnover in the EU.
Under the proposal, companies covered by CSRD will only be able to request sustainability information from suppliers with fewer than 1,000 employees if it’s included under the EU’s voluntary reporting standards or is typically available for that sector.
Transition plans have been spared the axe in Parliament’s current position on CSRD, but they’re set for change in the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D).
JURI still wants to companies covered by CS3D to have to adopt climate plans, but not necessarily ones that align with 1.5℃ .
There would be no duty to pursue them on a “best efforts” basis – “reasonable efforts” would suffice – or to take “implementing actions” to achieve them.
On scope, JURI wants CS3D to apply to companies with more than 5,000 employees and a net annual turnover above €1.5bn, with similar provisions for non-EU companies.
Parliament is hoping to get sign-off from MEPs at a plenary session on Monday 20th.
If it does, formal trialogues with Council and Commission will start on Friday 24th.
Lobbying
In the meantime, lobbying is continuing to ramp up.
Last week, Reuters reported that the CEOs of TotalEnergies and Siemens had written a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “on behalf of 46 European companies” requesting the abolition of CS3D.
Real Economy Progress has seen a list of the 46 companies whose CEOs were understood to have been represented by the statement – including Danone, Siemens, Airbus and BMW – although there is now some confusion about whether they actually endorsed it.
POLITICO reported earlier this week that some of the firms now claim they were “encouraged” to participate by their national governments, while some said they hadn’t even seen the letter ahead of publication.
A spokesperson for Deutsche Borse, on the other hand, confirmed that the stock exchange “supports the contents” of the letter.
CSRD
Real Economy Progress covered a number of developments around CSRD this week, including new enforcement priorities from the European supervisor, analysis of CSRD reports from Frank Bold and the French financial watchdog, and the final list of winners in our CSRD Awards 2025.