In short
- The next hard date for most companies is 30 December 2026, when the deforestation regulation's main obligations start. It binds by role, not by size.
- Several dates people still plan around have already passed or been deleted, including 30 June 2026 for sector standards and 30 December 2025 for EUDR.
- Most PPWR obligations dated 2030 carry a conditional tail: that year, or a set period after the relevant delegated act, whichever is later.
The next dated deadline is 30 December 2026, when the main deforestation obligations start applying, and it reaches you by what you sell rather than how large you are. After that: 1 January 2027 for the narrowed reporting scope, 19 March 2027 for national transposition, 30 June 2027 for smaller deforestation operators. Six dates people still treat as upcoming have gone, among them 30 June 2026 for sector reporting standards, deleted; 30 December 2025 for the deforestation regulation, superseded; and 1 October 2026 for assurance standards, moved to 1 July 2027. This calendar covers six instruments only, because those are the ones whose dates we have read in the enacted text.
A short accurate calendar is more use than a long speculative one. If an instrument you care about is missing here, it is missing because we have not verified its dates, not because it has none.
What is the full calendar to 2030?
Every row below comes from the instrument's own text, checked on 28 August 2026, with the two Dutch instruments rechecked on 24 September 2026.
| Date | What happens | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| During 2026, no day set | Intermediate evaluation of collective reported emissions by the Dutch ministry. The decree's explanatory note says only that it happens in 2026 | WPM |
| 30 December 2026 | Main due diligence and prohibition obligations apply. The EU Timber Regulation is repealed, with a run-off to 31 December 2029 for timber produced before 29 June 2023 | EUDR |
| 31 December 2026 | The first reporting wave's window closes. Article 5(2)(a) runs for financial years starting between 1 January 2024 and this date | CSRD |
| 1 January 2027 | Financial years starting on or after this date are the first under the narrowed reporting scope, and the same population carries the Article 8 Taxonomy disclosure | CSRD and EU Taxonomy |
| 14 January 2027 | End of the transition period. Last date a version 3.1 audit may be performed and the last date an authority may tender with the 3.1 criterion | CO2-Prestatieladder |
| 19 March 2027 | Member States must transpose Articles 1, 2 and 3 of Directive (EU) 2026/470 | Omnibus I |
| 30 June 2027 | Deferred start for operators who are natural persons or micro or small undertakings established as such by 31 December 2024, excluding products already covered by the Timber Regulation | EUDR |
| 1 July 2027 | Commission deadline to adopt harmonised limited assurance standards | CSRD |
| 1 January 2028 | Financial years from which the Article 40a third-country regime applies, at EUR 450 million of Union turnover for the group and EUR 200 million for the EU subsidiary or branch | CSRD |
| 1 January 2028 | Sections 1.2.3 and 1.2.4 of Annex V to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2178 apply | EU Taxonomy |
| 14 January 2028 | Last date on which a valid Handboek 3.1 certificate can still exist | CO2-Prestatieladder |
| 12 February 2028 | Operators filling sales packaging must minimise empty space, and the Commission must have adopted the calculation methodology | PPWR |
| 26 July 2028 | Member States must transpose the Article 4 amendments to the due diligence directive | Omnibus I |
| 12 August 2028 | Harmonised labelling on material composition and on waste receptacles, or a set period after the relevant implementing acts, whichever is later | PPWR |
| 1 January 2029 | Mandatory 90 percent separate collection objectives and deposit and return system minimum requirements | PPWR |
| 31 December 2029 | End of the run-off for timber produced before 29 June 2023 | EUDR |
| 1 January 2030 | Recyclability grades, minimum recycled content in plastic packaging, packaging minimisation, the maximum 50 percent empty space ratio, the Annex V format bans and the reuse targets. Each carries a conditional tail | PPWR |
| 1 January 2030 | Earliest date an emission limit value for business mobility could bite on an individual employer | WPM |
| 30 June 2030 | General review of the regulation, and at least every five years after | EUDR |
| 31 December 2030 | Target year for the collective reduction goal, now 1.2 Mton CO2 | WPM |
Which of these dates are conditional rather than fixed?
Three kinds, and mistaking any of them for a hard date will cost you.
Conditional on a further act. Almost the entire 2030 PPWR cluster is written as that date or a set period after the relevant delegated or implementing act enters into force, whichever is the latest. The same applies to the 2028 labelling dates. If the underlying act is late, the obligation is late. Treat these as no earlier than dates.
Conditional on national law. Everything sourced from a directive arrives through a national statute. Omnibus I obliges Member States to transpose by 19 March 2027, and the narrowed scope is written for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2027, which is earlier. We will not print a Dutch, German or Irish date, and neither should any page that cannot cite that country's act.
Conditional on a policy decision that has not been taken. The Dutch 96 grams per passenger-kilometre value for business mobility exists in the text but the relevant provisions have never been brought into force, and the ministry's own position is that the figure would likely be revised first. 2030 is the earliest it could apply, not a date on which it will.
Which dates have already passed?
Four, and each is still circulating as future.
12 August 2026 for the packaging regulation. It applies now, and what started on that date is the PFAS limit for food-contact packaging, the heavy metals limit, the duty to minimise substances of concern, and the rules on environmental claims about packaging.
1 January 2026 for the Taxonomy simplification act, which introduced the 10 percent materiality relief for eligibility and alignment assessment.
18 March 2026 for the entry into force of Omnibus I.
30 June 2026 for the Dutch WPM report covering calendar year 2025, which applied to employers with 100 or more employees. The move to a 250 threshold, written to apply retroactively from 1 January 2026, had not been published in the Staatsblad when that filing fell due, so it did not affect it.
Which dates do not exist any more?
Six, three of them deleted rather than moved.
30 June 2026 for the first sector-specific reporting standards. The empowerment itself was removed, so there is nothing to reschedule. 1 October 2028 for reasonable assurance standards, likewise removed. The listed-SME reporting years, whether quoted as financial year 2026 or as financial year 2028 after the stop-the-clock, because that wave was deleted outright.
Then three superseded dates. 1 October 2026 for harmonised limited assurance standards, now 1 July 2027. 30 December 2025 for the deforestation regulation, now 30 December 2026. And 30 June 2026 as the deferred start for micro and small deforestation operators, now 30 June 2027.
One widely repeated figure is wrong on both halves: the claim that e-commerce empty space must not exceed 40 percent from 12 August 2026. The ratio is 50 percent and it is a 2030 obligation with a conditional tail.
Why are only six instruments listed?
Because these are the ones whose dates we have read in the enacted text and can source line by line.
A compliance calendar earns its keep by being right, and the failure mode of published calendars is padding: an instrument added for completeness, with a date lifted from a secondary summary that was itself lifted from a press release. Three of the instruments above, the reporting directive, the deforestation regulation and the Dutch mobility decree, had a date that had moved since the guidance most people are working from. If you need a date for something not listed, ask for the article number that contains it, and check that the act carrying it has been published rather than merely adopted.
What should you actually do with this?
Split it into two lists, because the two halves need different owners.
The role-triggered dates, meaning deforestation and packaging, belong to whoever owns product and supply chain compliance. They do not ask for a carbon number and should not be run as an emissions project.
The size-triggered dates, meaning reporting and the Taxonomy, belong to finance and sustainability jointly, and the binding constraint is data rather than drafting. If your first mandatory financial year begins on 1 January 2027, the collection design has to be finished before it opens. The reporting standard wants scope 2 on both a location-based and a market-based basis, and the GHG Protocol expects the contractual instruments behind the market-based figure to be issued and cancelled as close as possible to the period they cover, which is far easier to arrange as the year runs than to repair after it closes.
If you are below the reporting thresholds, the dates that will actually reach you are your customers' and your tender scorers'. The useful preparation is a repeatable inventory sized to the voluntary standard, covered in the VSME standard, plus knowing where the ceiling on customer requests now sits, which is in what a customer may not ask you. In Dutch tenders the 14 January 2027 date is the one to diary, and the ladder for SMEs explains why.
You can build the first inventory on a free account on the platform, which serves 5,000+ users. One limitation to weigh while you plan: a mid-market reviewer gave Hedgehog 5 out of 5 on G2 in June 2026 and still asked for more integrations with other software in future. We have few today, so if your timeline assumes an automatic feed from an existing system, confirm that specific case before you commit to a date.
Sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/3234 and Regulation (EU) 2025/2650; Regulation (EU) 2025/40 Articles 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 24, 25, 29, 49, 50 and 71; Directive (EU) 2026/470; Directive (EU) 2022/2464 Article 5; Directive 2013/34/EU Articles 19a, 29a and 40a; Regulation (EU) 2020/852 Article 8 and Delegated Regulations (EU) 2021/2178 and (EU) 2026/73; Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving afdeling 18.1 and art. 18.12 Bal with RVO and ministry guidance; SKAO Handboek 4.0 and its overgangsregeling. Verified 28 August 2026.
Facts on this page were last verified on 2026-09-24.
