On February 26, 2025, the European Commission published proposals to simplify sustainability reporting and assurance. The proposals essentially comprise the Omnibus Directives amending the Statutory Audit Directive, the Accounting Directive, the CSRD and the CSDDD.

The initiative was announced following a meeting of EU heads of state and government with the European Commission in Budapest on November 8, 2024. Existing and future ESG reporting obligations are to be bundled and harmonized in order to strengthen the competitiveness of European companies.

With the entry into force of the EU Regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI Regulation) on August 1, 2024, comprehensive rules for the use of AI systems were introduced. These will take effect gradually. Chapters I and II of the AI Regulation, which concern ensuring the AI competence of users of AI applications and the cessation of prohibited AI practices, kicked off on February 2, 2025.

All companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), that fall under the scope of this regulation must check whether the requirements apply to them and ensure compliance.

On 24 January 2025, Accountancy Europe, the European umbrella organization of the auditing profession, published an overview of the status of implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in Europe (CSRD Transposition Tracker). It includes, for example

• information on national implementation,
• links to national legal texts,
• information on the number of companies affected,
• country-specific features and
• information on who is authorized to audit and the standards to be applied.

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) published two amendments to the IESBA Code of Ethics (Code) on January 17, 2025:

• International Ethics Standards for Sustainability Assurance (Including International Independence Standards) and Other Revisions to the Code Relating to Sustainability Assurance and Reporting,
• Revisions to the Code Addressing Using the Work of an External Expert.

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has submitted a standard for voluntary sustainability reporting by non-capital-market-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the European Commission (Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for non-listed SMEs - VSME). The WPK reported on the consultation on the draft of this standard under “New on WPK.de” from January 24, 2024 (in German).