Stop the Clock on CSRD and CSDDD

The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke has issued a press release on 31 March 2025 indicating that amendments will be made to the scope of existing Irish legislation governing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to further clarify and reduce the scope of companies covered by the  existing Irish legislation.

This decision is to be welcomed.

The press release also indicates that Minister Burke is “also focussed on quickly implementing the EU’s ‘Stop the Clock’ proposal together with the changes proposed by the wider Omnibus, once these are adopted at EU level, thereby delivering certainty for business at all levels in Ireland.”

This follows on from the EU Council’s member states representatives approving on 26 March 2025, the negotiating mandate for the proposed extensions to the CSRD and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), proposed by the European Commission in the EU Omnibus package in February 2025, known as the ‘Stop the Clock’ Directive.

EU Omnibus package

The proposals by the European Commission will remove approximately 80% of companies from the scope of the CSRD, focusing the sustainability reporting obligations on large companies, those companies having 1,000 employees as well as either (i) net turnover greater than €50m or (ii) a balance sheet total greater than €25m.

The package includes the Stop the Clock Directive:

• to postpone by two years the reporting requirements for companies currently within the scope of CSRD and which are required to report for the first time in 2026 or 2027
• to postpone by one year the transposition of the CSDDD which was due to be transposed by July 2026

For more information on the proposed omnibus package read our article.

For more information on the proposed omnibus changes to the CSDDD read our article.

The Stop the Clock Directive will be fast tracked

The European Parliament on 1 April 2025 voted to fast track the approval of the Stop the Clock Directive using the urgent procedure with 427 votes for, 221 against and 14 abstentions.

Next Steps

The postponements proposed in the Stop the Clock Directive will be put to a vote of the European Parliament on Thursday 3 April 2025.

If the proposals are approved then the Council can implement the proposed postponements.

For more information, please contact author Michelle McLoughlin, Senior Knowledge Consultant, or your usual contact in the Corporate or ESG groups. 

Date published: 1 April 2025