The Omnibus Law, redesigning reporting requirements for European companies (CSRD, CSDDD and Taxonomy) has seriously shaken the political and private sphere, plunging a number of businesses into uncertainty.

After nearly a year of debate, the law was finally adopted in December 2025, allowing the reporting machine to finally be relaunched. In this article, you will discover the major changes resulting from this law.

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Calendar of events leading up to the Omnibus Act

Let's go back together to the events that led to the vote of this law.

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A favourable political context

The Omnibus law is part of a political context favorable to regulatory relief around environmental issues.

Indeed, following the re-election of the President of the European Commission Ursual Von der Leyen, studies on the competitiveness of European companies were carried out at the institutional level.

This is particularly the case with the Draghi report,”The Future of European Competitiveness”, which highlighted the regulatory constraint that regulations on sustainability reporting (CSRD, CSDDD, Taxonomy) represented for the competitiveness of European companies, especially with regard to international companies that are not subject to these constraints.

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26 February 2025: European Commission proposal

It is in this context that the European Commission has published its proposal for Omnibus law on February 26, 2025, in order to reduce the burden associated with the various sustainability reporting exercises.

This ambitious proposal surprised many actors with its content:

• Proposal to reduce the perimeter of companies affected by nearly 80%
• Proposal to reduce the requisites Audit
• proposal to align the thresholds of the 3 regulations (CSRD, CSDDD, Taxonomy).

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3 April 2025: adoption of the Stop the Clock proposal

Given the timetable for implementing the CSRD, many wave 2 companies had already taken the first steps for their compliance. With the Omnibus proposal proposing to take them outside the scope of the CSRD, these wave 2 companies could have published their first CSRD report in 2025 and no longer be affected by the directive in 2026.

In order to avoid this situation (carrying out the exercise for nothing), the Commission adopted an express statute Stop the Clock, making it possible to postpone regulatory obligations for wave 2 and 3 companies by 2 years.

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Long months of debate

The year 2025 was studded with long debates between the 3 institutions of the European legislative process - European Commission, European Parliament and Council of Europe.

Raising and then reducing the thresholds for CSRD, inclusion and then exclusion of companies outside Europe... different parties whose opinions differed passed the ball back and forth for many months, proposing amendments after amendments in order to weaken or increase the ambitions of the proposal.

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December 16, 2025: adoption of the Omnibus Act

Finally, it is in December 2025 that the Omnibus Act was passed in its final proposal, putting an end to long months of debate and uncertainty.

Member states now have 6 months to transpose it into their national law.

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What the Omnibus law changes for the CSRD

The CSRD is the directive at the heart of the Omnibus law, and the one that has been most transformed as a result.

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Evolution of the thresholds and the application calendar

The biggest change in the Omnibus law is the scope of companies affected by the CSRD: from nearly 50,000 at the start, around 80% of these companies go beyond the scope of the Omnibus law. In fact, the Omnibus law raises the CSRD thresholds for companies with more than 1000 employees and €450m in turnover.

• Wave 1 CSRD: Listed companies with more than 500 employees. Only companies with more than 1000 employees and €450M in turnover remain within the scope.
• Wave 2 CSRD: Other big companies. Only companies with more than 1000 employees and €450M in turnover remain within the scope.
• Wave 3 CSRD: SMEs listed on the stock exchange. SMEs are going out of scope with the Omnibus law.

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ESRS: abandonment of sectoral ESRS and revision of agnostic ESRS

In addition to modifying the scope of application of the directive, the Omnibus law also proposes a revision of the content to alleviate them. For example, EFRAG worked in 2025 on a new version of the ESRS, reducing the number of data points to report, eliminating voluntary data points, and strengthening the operability of standards. Learn more.

Another major change in planning following the Omnibus law: the abandonment of sectoral ESRS. These standards, adapted to the most emissive sectors (mining, agriculture, textiles, etc.), were being prepared by EFRAG working groups. Their aim was to better direct the most relevant topics and information for businesses based on their sector.

These sectoral ESRS were cancelled by the Omnibus law, so as not to confuse businesses with too many standards.

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Evolution of the VSME voluntary framework

Another major change brought about by the Omnibus law: the evolution of the framework for voluntary businesses, VSME.

This framework, recommended for all companies wishing to carry out a reporting exercise on a voluntary basis, for example to meet the demand of their stakeholders, was put forward by the European Commission in July 2025.

Built by EFRAG based on the questions and indicators most requested from SMEs by contractors, this framework was designed for companies outside the scope of the CSRD before the Omnibus law, i.e. companies with less than 250 employees.

The changes in scope induced by the Omnibus law create a hole in the racket: what framework should be used for companies between 250 and 1000 employees, which are both too big for VSME and too small for ESRS?

In order to answer them, the Omnibus law provides for a new version of the VSME voluntary framework, suitable for companies with less than 1000 employees.

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What the Omnibus law changes for CSDDD and Taxonomy

The CSRD is not the only directive impacted by the Omnibus law: the due diligence directive, CSDDD, and the directive on business sustainability, Taxonomy, have also been amended.

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Omnibus law and CSDDD

The CSDDD, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, is the little sister of the CSRD. It requires the largest companies to set up a vigilance action plan in order to monitor human and environmental attacks in their value chain.

This new directive, whose French equivalent is the law on the Due Diligence, has already been in force for several years, has seen its thresholds raised to companies with 5000 employees and €1.5 billion in turnover with the Omnibus law, severely limiting its field of application.

In addition, the implementation of the CSDDD has been postponed until July 2029.

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Omnibus laxw and Taxonomy

Green taxonomy, which requires companies to publish the proportion of their sustainable activities and investments, is a directive that applies to companies subject to sustainability reporting obligations.

The changes to the scope of the CSRD with the Omnibus Act therefore have a direct impact on the Taxonomy, for which the threshold for affected companies is identical: more than 1,000 employees and €450 million in revenue.

The Omnibus Law also led to a simplification of the taxonomy content: removal of obligations for insignificant activities (representing less than 10% of turnover or investments), simplification of reporting templates, etc.

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Conclusion

The Omnibus Act caused quite a stir around corporate environmental obligations across Europe in 2025.

Although opinions differ on the matter, this law sparked heated debate, enabling many companies to better understand the ins and outs of these obligations and the importance of taking ESG issues into account in their operational management.

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