The Commission presented in a letter of 1 October its plan to de-prioritize the adoption of a series of secondary legislations, destined to implement or complement legislative acts adopted in the domain of financial services. These include acts of application of Directive (EU) 2022/2464 on corporate sustainability reporting (CSRD).

While the Commission was empowered to adopt such acts by the legislator, it has estimated that this would represent an excessive administrative burden for its services. In this regard, it has identified 115 of them as non-essential in a so-called “kill-list” issued alongside the letter.

Norms covered by the initiative include the ones setting out the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which regulate the disclosure of sustainability-related information in implementation of the requirements of the CSRD.

This notably concerns Delegated Acts on:

  • ESRS for SMEs, reporting on a voluntary basis (adoption planned for Q2 2026)
  • Sector-specific ESRS (adoption planned for Q2 2026)
  • ESRS for certain third country undertakings (adoption planned for Q2 2026)
  • Amending the first set of ESRS (adoption planned for Q4 2027)
  • Amending sector-specific ESRS (adoption planned for Q4 2029)

Going forward, the Commission will not adopt the acts listed before 1 October 2027. It will also propose to amend or repeal the empowerments granted to it in relation to the adoption of such acts, in the context of the regular amendment of the concerned legislations. In other words, the Commission openly considers a renunciation to the adoption of certain acts, while not designating them explicitly yet.

In a context where disagreements remain within the European Parliament and the Council on the extent of the simplification of the text and notably the range of companies concerned by the requirements, this de-prioritization adds in to the uncertainty surrounding the application of the CSRD requirements.

In this regard, the postponement of the adoption of the ESRS for third country companies is particularly detrimental as it creates a direct inequality with EU entities, which already have visibility on their own ESRS.