On June 23, 2025 the Council of the EU, which represents the 27 EU Member States, agreed on its negotiating mandate for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“CSDDD”) omnibus simplification.
This follows the European Commission’s omnibus proposal from February and is the next
Continue Reading EU Member States Agree on CSRD/CSDDD Omnibus Negotiating MandateAfter its 12-month deferral, the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (“EUDR”) is set to apply from December 30, 2025. Many companies are therefore refocusing EUDR compliance efforts. This blog provides an update on the rules and guidance and key, practical takeaways for companies.
The European Commission (“Commission”) recently provided new and updated
Continue Reading EUDR Back on the Horizon: Preparing for December 2025 ComplianceThe European Union has recently published a new (recast) Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (“UWWTD”) in the EU’s official journal. The UWWTD imposes important new Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”) obligations that will have a significant financial and administrative impact on companies marketing human medicines and cosmetic products in the
Continue Reading The EPR Obligations of the New Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive: Key Questions and Next Steps for Member StatesIn March this year, the European Commission adopted the Delegated Act on a common rating scheme for data centers (“Delegated Act”) in the European Union (“EU”). The Delegated Act implements the Energy Efficiency Directive (“EED”) and details the energy key performance indicators (“KPI”) that data center operators must report to the European database on data centers (“European database”), how to calculate them, and to what extent this information will be publicly disclosed.
Continue Reading New Sustainability Reporting Requirements for Data Centers in the EUThe European Union has just adopted the Right to Repair Directive (“R2RD”). Once it enters into force, the R2RD will require manufacturers of many types of consumer goods to provide repairs beyond the liability period, among other requirements. This blog post follows up on our previous blog post that discussed the different positions of the European Parliament and Council on the legislative proposal for the R2RD.
Continue Reading The EU Adopts Right to Repair DirectiveYesterday, the European Parliament approved a new (recast) Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (“UWWTD”) that will impose new additional costs on producers marketing pharmaceutical and cosmetic products in the European Economic Area by the end of 2027. Some studies suggest that the costs that producers would have to collectively pay could be around €1 billion per Member State. This is well above the figures published in the Commission’s impact assessment, which estimated the annual cost of implementing the various requirements of the UWWTD in all Member States at €3.8 billion, including €1.2 billion for micro-pollutants treatment.
The upcoming UWWTD lays down rules on the collection, treatment, and discharge of urban wastewater, and puts particular emphasis on the implementation of the polluter pays principle. The Directive aims to address the environmental and health concerns resulting from the presence of micro-pollutants, other pollutants (e.g., heavy metals, PFAS), microplastics and antimicrobial resistant (“AMR”) bacteria in European waters. It introduces new measures for the treatment of wastewater, including quaternary treatment for micro-pollutants, and makes producers of pharmaceutical and cosmetic producers pay for such treatment.
Continue Reading New EU Wastewater Treatment Fees on Producers of Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic ProductsOn January 17, 2024, the European Parliament formally endorsed its provisional agreement with the Council on the Directive Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition through Better Protection against Unfair Practices and Better Information (“Greenwashing Directive”). The Council is now expected to endorse the provisional agreement after which the Directive will be published in the EU Official Journal and enter into force.
The Greenwashing Directive aims to contribute to the EU’s green transition by empowering consumers to make informed purchases using reliable sustainability information about products and traders. To do so, the Directive amends Directive 2005/29 on Unfair Business-to-Consumer Practices (“Unfair Commercial Practices Directive”) by introducing specific rules on sustainability and environmental claims. The Greenwashing Directive is intended to work in tandem with the proposed Directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims (the “Proposed Green Claims Directive”), which we reported on here.
Companies should keep a close eye on the transposition of this Directive, as it will have a significant impact on how they communicate about their sustainability, environmental, and social or ethical efforts. Covington can help companies with navigating these regulatory requirements while meeting their business objectives.
Continue Reading EU Adopts New Rules on Greenwashing and Social Impact ClaimsThe European Parliament and Council are in negotiations to finalize the adoption of a proposal for a new Directive on the Right to Repair. The proposed Directive aims to meet the product sustainability and circularity objectives by improving product durability, reusability, upgradeability, and repairability as outlined in the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan 2020, a key component of the European Green Deal.*
Continue Reading The Right To Repair Gains Momentum In The EUThe European Commission is currently holding a public consultation on a Draft Delegated Act (“DDA”) on a common rating scheme on the energy performance of data centers in the European Union and European Economic Area (“EU/EEA”). The DDA will lay out the energy key performance indicators that operators and owners of data centers must report, the sustainability indicators that will be calculated per data center, and the aggregated data that will be made publicly available, in accordance with the new EU Energy Efficiency Directive (“EED”).
The adoption of the DDA will introduce specific mandatory environmental and energy performance reporting requirements for data centers for the first time in the EU/EEA, and probably in the world. These reporting requirements may be the first step for the EU to adopt mandatory environmental performance targets for data centers within the next decade.
Continue Reading Upcoming Sustainability Reporting Requirements for Data Centers in the EUIn the early hours of December 14, 2023, the Council of the EU (“Council”) and the European Parliament (“Parliament”) reached a provisional political agreement on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“CSDDD”). Described as a “historic breakthrough” by Lara Wolters, who has led this file for the Parliament, the CSDDD will require many companies in the EU and beyond to conduct environmental and human rights due diligence on their global operations and value chain, and oblige them to adopt a transition plan for climate change mitigation.
Given the CSDDD’s relevance for companies’ ongoing compliance planning on environmental and human rights matters, this blog aims to advise clients on the basic elements of the CSDDD agreement based on press releases from the Council, Parliament, and the European Commission (“Commission”), even if much uncertainty remains. Although a political agreement has been reached, the text of the agreement is not publicly available and a number of details of the legal text will need to be finalized in follow-up technical meetings. Covington will publish a more detailed alert on “how to prepare” for the CSDDD once the full text is available (likely in early 2024).
Continue Reading Provisional Agreement on the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD): Key Elements of the Deal