On Monday 23 June, the members of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (‘Coreper’) reached a political agreement on the ‘omnibus’ directive, which simplifies two other directives: CSRD and CSDDD, on the sustainability of companies and their duty of due diligence. The Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU put forward more than four different proposals in a very short space of time to reach this agreement. A few adjustments to the text proposed on 17 June may have satisfied the delegations.
The threshold for companies covered by the CSDDD on due diligence needed to be considerably raised in order to convince certain member countries. The threshold for company size has thus been increased from 1,000 to 5,000 employees. The turnover threshold has been raised from €450 million a year to €1.5 billion (see EUROPE 13662/23).
The Member States are also proposing to postpone the directive’s entry into force for a further year.
Compared with the European Commission’s proposal presented in February (see EUROPE 13588/4), the obligations relating to due diligence in the chain of activities have been lightened, as has the duty to maintain a climate change action plan.
Agence Europe will be back with details of the agreement. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)