The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) elevates sustainability reporting to the same level of scrutiny as financial reporting, impacting over 42,500 companies across the European Union (EU).
The CSRD, which came into force in January 2023, mandates companies to report on their sustainability impacts and sustainability-related financial risks and opportunities to satisfy the growing demand for transparency in corporate sustainability performance. Companies in the first reporting wave are expected to publish their sustainability reports in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) for the 2024 data in 2025.
The CSRD also increases the reported sustainability information reliability, by introducing an EU-wide assurance requirement to obtain limited assurance over sustainability reporting as from 2025 over 2024 ESRS reporting.
Check also our newly published FAQs webpage: FAQs: fundamentals to assurance on sustainability reporting.
Member States (MS) had to transpose the directive into national law by 6 July 2024. However, there have been some delays in national transposition. For that reason, in September 2024, the European Commission (EC) decided to open infringement procedures against 17 Member States for failing to notify their national measures transposing the CSRD. In the beginning of 2025, in less than 10 MS the CSRD transposition is pending – see the latest overview in our tracker below.
The CSRD aims to strengthen reporting and assurance requirements. However, it still provides MS with a level of flexibility while transposing certain provisions. For instance, MS may allow another statutory auditor other than the financial statements auditor or an independent assurance services provider (IASP) to express an opinion on sustainability reporting. Also, MS may decide to apply national assurance standards, procedures or requirements until the EC adopts an EU limited assurance standard. The CSRD includes other so-called MS ‘options’, however, we do not cover them in our tracker.
Accountancy Europe has been monitoring the CSRD transposition developments across the European Economic Area (EEA) countries. We collect this information through our membership (see Accountancy Europe members). This tracker is continuously updated as new information becomes available.
We launched the CSRD transposition tracker offering insights into Member States transposition, helping stakeholders compare national transposition across Europe.
Our tracker compiles information on elements such as:
Our platform serves as a knowledge hub, offering easy access to country-specific data and highlighting key differences in transposition. It, however, does not intend to provide a detailed overview of transposition in each country nor does it cover the information on all possible MS ‘options’.
