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The European Single Access Point is part of a package of measures taken in 2021 to improve the ability of companies to raise capital across the EU. Thanks to its centralisation of public financial and sustainability-related information about European companies, it aims at creating visibility towards investors, opening up more sources of financing.
At the end of 2023, The EU Council approved the regulation organising the ESAP Platform. The ESAP platform, which is to be operated by ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority), is expected to be available from summer 2027 and gradually phased in to allow for a robust implementation. This phasing-in will ensure that European regulations and directives will enter into the scope of ESAP within four years, in order of priority.
After January 2030, it will also be possible to publish further information on a voluntary basis.
ESAP does not impose any additional information reporting requirements on European companies as it collects information that has already been made public by application of 35 identified European directives and regulations.
For what concerns sustainability statements, the ESAP will contain the digital sustainability-related information published by companies in compliance with the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)/ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) and the EU Taxonomy, thereby supporting the objectives of the European Green Deal.
In this context, companies that fall into the scope of the CSRD and Taxonomy will need to publish a “human-readable” and a “machine-readable” report. To prepare this digital report, EFRAG is developing a digital taxonomy with XBRL tags for the sustainability reporting and Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy. This digital taxonomy has been undergoing public consultation and is now being updated by EFRAG. It will then be delivered to ESMA, who will adapt and integrate it into the global ESEF taxonomy.
Auditors will need to review this digitalisation of the sustainability statements and report on it as part of their sustainability report assurance.
Therefore, companies will need to prepare for this new challenge and will need to consider this new requirement when organising their planning for their annual report preparation.
If you would like to know more about this topic and how it may impact you, then do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
