The European Union finds itself caught between the climate crisis, declining competitiveness, and geopolitical conflicts. With the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), adopted in 2022 and 2024 respectively, key instruments were established to promote transparency, resilience, and corporate transformation. Since February 2025, the future of both regulations has been uncertain: on 26 February, the European Commission launched a so-called Omnibus Initiative for both CSRD and CSDDD.
Its aim is to simplify the CSRD and CSDDD in order to make them more manageable for companies. In this paper, we scrutinise the Omnibus Initiative with regard to the CSRD and the CSDDD. In doing so, we examine the proposals of the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament. The analysis shows: the Omnibus Initiative fails to achieve its self-declared goal of greater simplification. Against this backdrop, this paper outlines what genuine simplification could look like. We focus on options that lead to simplification but also ensure the protection of human rights and environmental standards. Among other things, the paper advocates for an EU-wide helpdesk for companies, the introduction of simplified standards for mid-caps, and a strengthening of risk and materiality analysis. With this paper, Germanwatch positions itself in the Omnibus negotiations and calls for a user-oriented and sustainability-proof revision of the CSRD and CSDDD.
