The centrist and rightist factions of the Parliament – Renew, EPP, ECR, PfE and ESN – voted on 1 April 2025 to trigger the urgent procedure to vote on the Omnibus package.

The vote to postpone the application of the texts themselves took place on 3 April 2025. The motion passed with 513 in favour and 69 against as the EPP, Renew, and S&D reached an agreement to approve the Commission’s proposal.

This will see the adoption of the so-called “stop-the-clock” mechanism to postpone the implementation of the European sustainability reporting framework. Specifically, reporting requirements for the CSRD second and third-wave companies would be delayed, shifting the reporting timeline from 2026 to 2028 for large companies with over 250 employees, and from 2027-2029 to 2028-2030 for listed SMEs.

The transposition deadline into national legislation for CSDDD would, in turn, be delayed by a year until 26 July 2027. The 12-month extension will also apply to the first wave of businesses to be affected, namely: EU companies with over 5,000 employees and a net turnover higher than EUR 1.5 billion, and non-EU companies with a turnover above this threshold in the EU. These companies will only have to start reporting from 2028. A formal validation by the Council will be required before the stop-the-clock mechanism can enter into force.

Next, the Council plans to start work on the initial compromise of the Omnibus package details in mid-April, including the application scope reduction from 50,000 to 10,000 reporting European companies. European countries have previously expressed their support for deregulation. The Polish Presidency of the Council comments that its objective is to “advance work on the simplification of texts as far as possible, with the aim of starting trilogues”. Interinstitutional negotiations between the Commission, the Parliament and the Council would follow thereafter.

Market impact

In the short run, the arrival of the previously expected additional GO demand on the market could be postponed, contributing to the ongoing bearish sentiment. However, companies that are already reporting under the CSRD could still pass sustainability requirements down their supply chain, thereby lessening the regulatory blow for the GO market.

Still, large companies already falling under the first CSRD-reporting wave could adopt less ambitious decarbonisation strategies if they know that they could be excluded by dint of upper company size and turnover thresholds. For instance, under the CSRD, while the market-based method is to be used for Scope 2 GHG emissions disclosure, companies could rely on the residual mix as opposed to GO procurement or PPAs.

Veyt recently reviewed the first batch of CSRD-compliant reports. While most companies source GOs for Scope 2 management, there are still some that choose the residual mix for disclosure, although a minority.