VSME Becomes the VS: What Changes for FY2027

If your business uses the VSME standard — to answer customer ESG requests, share data with a bank, or publish a voluntary report — a naming change is coming with legal weight behind it. On 3 July 2026 the European Commission adopted the delegated act that turns EFRAG’s VSME standard into the EU’s official voluntary standard (VS), applying to financial years starting 1 January 2027.

The reassuring summary first: the standard you know survives largely intact, and the work you have done maps forward. What changes is its status. This page tracks the transition, the substantive differences, and the dates, and we keep it current as the remaining steps land.

The Journey From Guidance to Law

The through-line: each step raised the stakes for the same document. What began as an EFRAG recommendation is now the legal reference point for what CSRD reporters may ask of smaller business partners — the value-chain cap — and the format the Commission asks banks to respect.

What Stays the Same

Most of it, deliberately:

• The two-module structure. The Basic Module (B1–B11) and Comprehensive Module (C1–C9) both carry over. A report built on them today remains the right shape.
• The applicability approach. The VS keeps VSME’s simple principle in place of materiality assessments: you complete each disclosure where it applies to your business, and state briefly where it does not.
• The voluntary character. No SME is compelled to report. The VS binds the requesters — it defines the most a CSRD reporter may demand of you — while your own use of it stays optional.
• The data. Energy, emissions, water, waste, workforce, and governance figures collected for VSME feed the VS unchanged. Nothing you have banked is wasted.

For the modules themselves, see VSME Basic vs Comprehensive.

What Changes

Four things, in rising order of visibility:

1. The name. From FY2027 the legal reference is the VS; “VSME” remains the common name through 2026 and will linger in questionnaires and tools. Expect a period of both names meaning the same standard.
2. The legal anchor. The cap’s ceiling is now pinned to the VS’s Annex II disclosure set, with a lower ceiling for micro-enterprises of 10 or fewer employees. What was “the standard buyers should respect” became “the standard buyers may not exceed” — the requester-side reading is in what you may no longer ask sub-1,000-employee suppliers.
3. The ecosystem hardens around it. EFRAG’s digital template and XBRL taxonomy (version 1.3.0, released June 2026, with the Excel template available in 11 languages and a free open-source XBRL converter) give the standard official tooling, and buyer questionnaires are being redesigned against the VS for FY2027. The template itself has not yet been updated for the adopted delegated act; EFRAG has said updates will follow.
4. The audiences multiply. With EcoVadis recognising VSME-aligned reports in its Q1 2026 methodology and banks steered towards the format by the 2025 Recommendation, one VS-shaped dataset now serves customers, platforms, and lenders at once.

The Dates That Matter

• Now (2026): the delegated act sits in the Parliament and Council scrutiny period (two months, extendable to four). Objection is uncommon but possible; we will update this page when scrutiny concludes.
• FY2026: early adoption is available — a report prepared for financial year 2026 may already follow the adopted VS.
• FY2027: the VS applies, the cap’s ceiling is fully in force, and redesigned supplier questionnaires arrive in volume. Reasonable expectation: the heaviest flow of VS-shaped requests reaches SMEs through 2027 and 2028, as reporters’ first post-reform cycles complete.

What to Do, Depending on Where You Stand

If you already report with VSME: continue. Your structure is the VS structure, and the sensible upgrade is completing the climate disclosures (C3 targets, C4 risks) that sit outside the cap and top the request lists of banks and large buyers.

If you are starting now: start with the Basic Module and treat the rename as cosmetic. The figures come from bills and payroll, the step-by-step questionnaire guide covers the gathering, and a free VSME report tool generates the finished report at no cost — with your answers kept in an ESG answer bank so the FY2027 wave of requests starts from stored data rather than from scratch.

If you are a requester: the FY2027 date is your rebuild deadline; the audit method is in the buyer’s guide to requesting CSRD data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the VS mandatory for SMEs from 2027?

No. The VS remains voluntary for the businesses reporting with it; no SME becomes a mandatory filer. Its legal force points the other way, constraining what CSRD reporters may require from partners with fewer than 1,000 employees. Voluntary adoption is what makes the protection practical, since one VS-shaped report answers the capped requests.

Do I need to redo my VSME report for the VS?

No wholesale redo. The VS keeps the Basic and Comprehensive modules and the applicability approach, so an existing VSME report carries forward with at most minor remapping as tools update to the adopted text. Data continuity was a design goal of the transition, not an accident.

Could the scrutiny period still change the standard?

The Parliament and Council can confirm or object to the adopted delegated act; objection would send it back rather than editing it line by line. Objections to delegated acts are uncommon, and the political agreement behind Omnibus I makes one unlikely here, but the possibility is why this page carries a “still in motion” note until scrutiny concludes.

What happens to the name “VSME”?

It fades slowly rather than disappearing. The legal reference from FY2027 is the VS, but “VSME” is embedded in tools, questionnaires, and habit, so both names will circulate for years meaning the same standard. Content and templates with a long shelf life should mention both.

Key Terms

• VSME — the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs, developed by EFRAG; the common name through 2026.
• VS (voluntary standard) — the same standard as adopted by the Commission’s delegated act of 3 July 2026; the legal reference from FY2027.
• Annex II — the part of the delegated act containing the disclosure set that defines the value-chain cap’s ceiling.
• Applicability approach — the VS’s principle in place of materiality assessment: complete each disclosure where it applies, state briefly where it does not.
• Scrutiny period — the two-month (extendable to four) window in which the European Parliament and Council can object to an adopted delegated act.
• Early adoption — the option to apply the VS to financial year 2026 ahead of its FY2027 start.

Conclusion

The VSME-to-VS transition is that rare regulatory event that asks almost nothing of the people it protects: the standard keeps its shape, the data carries forward, and the legal weight lands on the requesters. The sensible response is to be ready for the FY2027 wave — a Basic report in hand, climate disclosures added where lenders and buyers warrant them, and every answer banked for reuse.

This page is maintained as scrutiny concludes and the transition completes, so it is safe to link to and to cite. For the wider reform this sits inside, see The EU Omnibus: What Changed for CSRD.