EU CSRD: Commission grants EFRAG an additional month to deliver simplified ESRS

On 27 March 2025, the European Commission tasked EFRAG with simplifying the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), as part of its Omnibus simplification plans. On 25 April 2025, EFRAG announced that it had submitted its work plan to the European Commission, outlining the steps to revise and simplify the ESRS. EFRAG published its Progress Report on this work on 20 June 2025. The draft of the revised ESRS is expected to be opened for public consultation at the end of July.

The public consultation was initially expected to run for 40 to 45 days (until early September). However, EFRAG requested an extension from the Commission. On 1 July 2025, the Commission responded, confirming that the deadline for EFRAG to deliver its technical advice on the revision and simplification of the ESRS has been pushed from 31 October to 30 November.

As a result, the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board (EFRAG SRB) has extended the public consultation to 60 days, from the end of July until the end of September 2025. EFRAG also confirmed that outreach events will be organised at the end of September and the beginning of October.

In its letter granting the extension, the Commission highlighted several key points for EFRAG to consider:

• In principle, no new data points should be added to the ESRS. Similarly, data points that are currently voluntary (“may”) should not be made mandatory (“shall”).
• The final draft standards should be consistent, avoid unnecessary repetition, and be substantially shorter.
• The advantages and disadvantages of maintaining voluntary disclosures within the standards should be considered as part of the public consultation.
• New terms or concepts, or modifications to existing ones, should be introduced only if they contribute to simpler and clearer standards.
• The revised ESRS should result in reporting that focuses on strategically important information. In practice, this means companies should report less information under the revised ESRS than under the existing standards.
• Interoperability of the ESRS with global standards, particularly those of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), remains a key issue. Depending on the public consultation outcomes, EFRAG may discuss with the ISSB the possibility of simplifying the IFRS S1 and S2 standards correspondingly.

For further details of the first Omnibus package and ESRS, see our CSRD demystified materials.