Today, the European Commission published a set of decisions on the delayed transposition of EU directives into national law. The Commission is sending warning letters to Member States that have not notified national measures to transpose directives, the deadline for which recently expired.

In this case, 26 Member States have not yet notified national measures to fully transpose five EU directives in the areas of justice, financial stability, energy and the environment. The Member States concerned now have two months to respond to the warning letters and complete the transposition. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to send a reasoned opinion.

Commission calls on 17 Member States to fully transpose the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

The European Commission decided to initiate infringement proceedings by sending a letter of warning to 17 member states (Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Finland), for not notifying national measures for the full transposition of the Accounting Directive (Directive 2013/34/EU), the Transparency Directive (Directive 2004/109/EC) and the Audits Directive (Directive 2014/56/EU ), as amended by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) [οδηγία (ΕΕ) 2022/2464] .

The CSRD Directive provides new rules for sustainability reporting.

It requires large and listed companies (except micro-enterprises) to disclose information about the social and environmental risks they face and how their activities affect people and the environment.

Thus, investors and other stakeholders can more easily assess companies’ sustainability performance. The new sustainability reporting rules apply from financial years starting on or after 1 January 2024. If these new rules are not transposed into national law, it will not be possible to achieve the necessary level of harmonization of sustainability reporting in the EU and investors will not be able to take into account companies’ sustainability performance when making investment decisions.

The 17 Member States concerned have not yet notified the full transposition of the provisions of the CSRD Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2464) into their national law. The deadline for transposition ended on 6 July 2024.

Consequently, the Commission is sending letters of warning to the Member States concerned, who have two months to respond and complete their transposition. If it does not receive a satisfactory answer, the Commission may decide to send a reasoned opinion.

Katerina Plati