One page per article
What each article does, in our words.
The directive amends four instruments through seven articles. Article 2 is the longest and carries the reporting statement, the threshold, the value chain cap and the assurance provision. Article 4 changes the due diligence regime. Article 5 sets the two transposition dates. Each page states the article's effect, the party it binds, the dates and the duty records inside it.
- ARTICLE 1Audit firms and sustainability assurance
Article 1 changes who may be approved as an audit firm, who may sign a sustainability assurance engagement, when the assurance standards arrive and how a third-country auditor is registered for sustainability work.
- ARTICLE 2The sustainability statement and the new thresholds
Article 2 is the centre of the rule. It raises the scope threshold, caps what a reporting company may ask of its value chain, rewrites the omission conditions, changes the group options, and adjusts assurance and third-country reporting.
- ARTICLE 3The CSRD transition, year by year
Article 3 rewrites the transitional scope in Article 5(2) of the CSRD. It separates the financial years 2024 to 2026 from financial years starting on or after 1 January 2027, deletes the listed SME wave, and gives Member States a limited exemption for 2025 and 2026.
- ARTICLE 4Due diligence: scope, process and liability
Article 4 raises the CSDDD thresholds, narrows the harmonisation rule, changes the risk assessment and last-resort measures, and moves the reporting and ESAP dates.
- ARTICLE 5Transposition: two dates, not one
Member States must transpose Articles 1, 2 and 3 by 19 March 2027, and Article 4 by 26 July 2028. The article also requires the national measures to be communicated to the Commission.
- ARTICLE 6Entry into force
The directive entered into force on 18 March 2026, the twentieth day after its publication in the Official Journal on 26 February 2026.
- ARTICLE 7Addressees
The directive is addressed to the Member States. It creates no direct duty on a company; the national transposition measure does that.