Consultation Opens on Simplified ESRS Drafts Under Omnibus Directive

In Short

• The objective is to make sustainability reporting much easier and less burdensome.
• The revision is based on feedback from businesses and other stakeholders.
• The consultation will run from July 31 to September 29, 2025.

EFRAG, or the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, a body that advises the European Commission on sustainability reporting standards, has launched revised and simplified versions of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) for public consultation.

Launched at the behest of the European Commission in March 2025, the 60-day public consultation will gather feedback from various stakeholders, such as businesses, investors, regulators, and others across the European Union (EU).

The object of the revision is to make sustainability reporting under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) easier for companies, without loosing its intent or weakening its alignment with the European Green Deal.

Read More: EU Member States Weigh Diluting CSRD and CSDDD Rules

As many businesses using the CSRD, or already planning to do so, found the original requirements complex and not useful, EFRAG collected over 800 survey responses and held multiple stakeholder engagements to guide the simplification process.

Applying both top-down simplification strategies and bottom-up reviews, the changes include: simplifying the double materiality assessment; reducing overlaps between standards; using more straightforward language and structure for a better user experience; removing all voluntary disclosures; and introducing relief mechanisms to exempt companies from reporting where it would create excessive cost or effort.

Consequently, mandatory data points have been reduced by 57%, and the total number of disclosures, including both mandatory and voluntary, has been cut by 68%. The length of the ESRS has also been reduced by over 55%, making it easier for businesses, particularly those that are about to use the standards in the coming years.

Also Read: EU Omnibus: Parliament and Council Take Stance on CSRD and CS3D

Public feedback is open from 31 July to 29 September 2025, and in the course of consultation, all parties are invited to review the revision and share opinions. For more participation, EFRAG will host outreach programmes in September and October.

Patrick de Cambourg, Chair of the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board, said: “EFRAG is fully aligned with the strategic vision set out by the European Commission. These revisions aim to deliver what Europe needs at this moment: a more focused, more usable sustainability reporting system that remains ambitious but does not overburden companies.

"Capitalising on effective experience, this is about making ESRS a more workable reality—so that sustainability reporting supports, rather than hinders, resilience, investment, and long-term value creation.”

Ends/

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Source: EFRAG