ESAP: European Single Access Point

Reference text

• Council position on the ESAP (main text) https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/57560/10619-en22.pdf

• European Parliament position on the ESAP (main text) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021DC0720

Entry into force

31.12.2024: opening of the ESAP ? (EC proposed timeline to be confirmed, on going trilogue discussion)

What is the ESAP, or European Single Access Point?

The aim of the European Single Access Point (ESAP) is to offer an EU-wide access to information on activities or products provided by entities when this information relates to capital markets, financial services, or sustainable finance. The ESAP will create a single location where all these data will be accessible, thus facilitating their consultation and comparison by any investor, thereby helping him in his decision-making process.

The targeted information includes the information already submitted to a mandatory public disclosure enshrined in the related directive/regulation. However, in some circumstances, information may be brought to the ESAP on a voluntary basis.

The ESAP could be compared with similar international projects such as the US EDGAR, the Japanese EDINET or the Canadian SEDAR.

The ESAP initiative also supports two other European Commission programs:

• The EC’s commitment to achieving a green transition of the EU economy as set out in the European Green Deal communication (December 2019) and the Strategy for Financing the Transition to a Sustainable Economy

• The Commission’s Digital Finance Strategy (September 2020) where information disclosed to public should be disclosed in standardised and machine-readable formats.

The ESAP regulation is made of three different texts: the first one establishes the European Single Access Point while the two others modify respectively certain regulations and certain directives as regards ESAP.

The ESAP would provide at least the following functionalities:

• a web portal with a user-friendly interface in all the official languages of the Union to provide access to the information in the ESAP;

• an API enabling easy access to the information available in the ESAP;

• a search function in all the official languages of the Union;

• an information viewer;

• a machine translation service for the information retrieved;

• a download service, including the download of large quantities of data;

• a notification service informing users of any new information available in the ESAP. Research may be done using criteria related to the entity that submitted the information (name, Legal Entity Identifier, size) or to the information itself (type, submission date of the information).