After more than a year of negotiation and technical revision, the European Union's simplified sustainability reporting framework is now law. On September 21, 2026, following the end of the scrutiny period by the European Parliament and the Council, the European Commission published two delegated acts in the Official Journal. The first contains the revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The second contains a new voluntary reporting standard.

For companies that remain in scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), these texts set the reporting framework they will use for years to come.

Two delegated acts, two different roles

The first act, Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1563, amends Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 and replaces the original ESRS with a revised, simplified set. The second, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/1560, establishes a voluntary sustainability reporting standard for undertakings outside the scope of the CSRD.

Publication completes a process with several steps. EFRAG submitted its technical advice on the revision in December 2025, and the Commission published a draft delegated act for public consultation in May 2026. The Commission formally adopted the final delegated act on July 3, 2026.

A leaner standard

The revision was designed to reduce reporting burden. EFRAG's technical advice proposed a 61% reduction in mandatory datapoints and eliminated all voluntary disclosures, for a total datapoint reduction of more than 70%. The Commission also retained the reliefs EFRAG had introduced, along with other key simplifications from the original ESRS.

The revised standards sit alongside the scope changes made earlier this year by the Omnibus Directive. Under the amended CSRD, sustainability reporting obligations apply only to EU undertakings or groups with more than 1,000 employees and net annual turnover above €450 million.

Key dates

The revised ESRS enter into force on November 10, 2026. They are mandatory for financial years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, with first reports due in 2028.

Companies in scope for a financial year starting in 2026 have a choice. They may apply the existing ESRS supplemented by a set of reliefs drawn from the new Delegated Regulation, which cover, among other areas, the top-down materiality approach, value chain limitation, and new acquisitions and disposals. Early adoption of the revised standards for financial year 2026 is also permitted once the delegated act enters into force.

The voluntary standard and the value chain cap

The voluntary standard enters into force on September 24, 2026. It is available from that date to any undertaking not subject to mandatory CSRD reporting.

Its most significant practical effect is the value chain cap, which applies from financial years beginning on or after January 1, 2027. From then on, companies subject to mandatory reporting cannot require value chain partners with an average of 1,000 employees or fewer in the preceding financial year to provide information beyond a short list of essential environmental, social, and governance datapoints. That list is set out in Annex II to the Regulation.

For reporting companies, this changes how supplier data requests and value chain disclosures should be designed. For smaller companies in those value chains, it provides a clear legal limit on what can be asked of them.

One further note

Because the delegated acts were adopted and published close together, comments on some language versions could not yet be incorporated. A corrigendum to the German-language versions is expected in October or November 2026. Multinational groups working from non-English texts should monitor for corrections.

Looking ahead

With the final text in place, companies can move from monitoring to implementation. Priorities include:

• Re-assessing entity-level scope against the revised thresholds.

• Mapping existing datapoint inventories and data collection processes to Regulation 2026/1563.

• Deciding on an approach for financial year 2026.

• Aligning supplier data requests with the value chain cap before it takes effect.