20 Feb 24
Everything you Need to Know About the European Single Access Point
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On 25 November 2021, the Commission adopted and transmitted to the Council a proposal for the regulation establishing the European Single Access Point (“ESAP”).
On 20 December 2023, the “ESAP Regulation” (Regulation (EU) 2023/2859) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union and is accompanied by an omnibus regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/2869) and an omnibus directive (Directive (EU) 2023/2864) – two pieces of legislation that amend a range of existing EU legislation (collectively the “ESAP Legislation”).
The ESAP will create a portal to be established and operated by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) that will offer EU-wide access to information on activities or products provided by entities when this information relates to capital markets, financial services, or sustainable finance. This information will include public financial, non-financial and sustainability-related information about EU companies and financial products.
Investors will be able to access valuable data via the ESAP portal, ultimately providing enhanced transparency which will aid the decision-making process. In conjunction with this, the enhanced transparency provided by the ESAP is predicted to create more financing opportunities, particularly for smaller companies in small capital markets.
Investors in capital markets must have access to comparable information about companies and financial products. The ESAP will offer free, user friendly, centralised and digital access to financial and sustainability related information made public by European companies, including small companies.
The ESAP Legislation will be transposed into local law by Member States on a staggered basis, under an ambitious timeframe. The key dates for transposition and amendment to current legislation to affect the ESAP Legislation are as follows:
| Date | Transposing Directives and Regulations | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 July 2025 | Member States to make the necessary changes to existing domestic transposing legislation for the Transparency Directive. | |
| 10 January 2026 | Member States to make the necessary changes to existing domestic transposing legislation for the Accounting Directive, Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (“AIFMD”), Audit Directive, Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (“BRRD”), Capital Requirements Directive (“CRD”), Covered Bonds Directive, Financial Conglomerates Directive, Insurance Distribution Directive (“IDD”), Investment Firms Directive (“IFD”), IORP Directive, MiFID II, Shareholder Rights Directive, Solvency II Directive, Takeovers Directive and UCITS Directive. | |
| 10 July 2026 | The following EU directives and regulations will be brought into the ESAP framework: Prospectus Regulation, Short Selling Regulation and Transparency Directive. Note that this will involve the provision of information to ESMA in advance of the ESAP platform becoming operational. | |
| 10 July 2027 | Deadline for ESMA to establish and operationalise ESAP. | |
| 10 January 2028 | The following EU directives and regulations will be brought into the ESAP framework: Accounting Directive, Benchmarks Regulation, Credit Rating Agencies Regulation, EuSEFs Regulation, EuVECA Regulation, Market Abuse Regulation, Pan-European Personal Pension Product Regulation, PRIIPs KID Regulation, Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation and UCITS Directive. | |
| 10 January 2030 | The following EU directives and regulations will be brought into the ESAP framework: AIFMD, Audit Directive, Audit Regulation, BRRD, CRD, Capital Requirements Regulation, Covered Bonds Directive, ELTIF Regulation, EU Green Bond Standard Regulation, Financial Conglomerates Directive, IDD, IFD, Investment Firms Regulation, IORP Directive, Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiFID II and MiFIR, Money Market Funds Regulation, Securities Financing Transactions Regulation, Shareholder Rights Directive, Solvency II Directive and Takeovers Directive. |
It is important to note that the ESAP Legislation will not result in any additional reporting requirements for EU companies. All in-scope information required under the ESAP Legislation should already be made public under the above regulations. However, information up of 5 years old at the time of submission to the ESAP may be required to be submitted by an EU company to the ESAP. Additionally, an EU company may volunteer to submit certain information that falls out of the scope of the ESAP Legislation if they so wish.
If you would like to learn more about the ESAP Legislation, please reach out to Yolanda Kelly.