NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Manon Cremers, Heleen Kersten, Frédérique van der Wegen and Sandra Rietveld, Stibbe
sustainability. The Amsterdam District Court has not yet issued a ruling. 2.2 ESG Considerations The CSRD requires companies to publish reports on the policies, targets, performance, impacts, risks and opportunities in relation to ESG aspects of the company. The CSRD revises and strengthens rules introduced by the Non- Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). It aims to ensure that companies provide reliable, consist - ent and comparable sustainability information for investors and other stakeholders. Reporting must be done in accordance with the ESRS adopted by the European Commission. The CSRD requires companies to publish their sustainability reports in a dedicated section of their annual management reports. Taking into account the postponements intro - duced by the “stop-the-clock” directive, the CSRD applies to financial years starting on or after: • 1 January 2024 for large Dutch l listed com - panies that already have to report in order to conform with the NFRD; • 1 January 2027 for large companies ( grote vennootschappen ); and • 1 January 2028 for listed SMEs, which will be subject to a mitigated reporting regime. The CSRD requires an independent assurance services provider to provide an assurance opin - ion on sustainability reporting. Initially, during the first few years of application of the CSRD, this opinion may be based on a limited assurance engagement. In the future, however, this may be extended to a reasonable assurance engage - ment after an assessment by the European Commission of the feasibility of such extension.
However, in the omnibus package, it is proposed that this possibility for the European Commis - sion to propose moving from a limited assurance requirement to a reasonable assurance require - ment be removed. CSDDD The CSDDD sets out to ensure that large compa - nies operating in or trading with the EU integrate environmental and human rights due diligence into their corporate governance. Its scope tar - gets EU companies with over 1,000 employees and a global turnover of more than EUR450 million. Non-EU companies generating at least EUR450 million within the EU also fall under the scope of the CSDDD. The CSDDD mandates that in-scope companies adopt effective due diligence policies to identify, prevent or mitigate – and ultimately end – any adverse impact of their operations on human rights, the environment and good corporate gov - ernance (including corruption). Key obligations include: • implementing “appropriate measures” across the entire value chain; • expanding the scope of adverse impacts to cover a broader range of human rights issues; and • developing a strategic plan to align busi - ness models with the global target of limiting warming to 1.5°C. Omnibus Packages On 26 February 2025, the European Commission published two omnibus simplification packages, introducing proposals to reduce sustainability requirements following from EU legislation.
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