Regulation 2023/2859 - European single access point providing centralised access to publicly available information of relevance to financial services, capital markets and sustainability

Official Journal

of the European Union

EN

Series L

2023/2859

20.12.2023

Easy and structured access to data is important in order for decision makers, professional and retail investors, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, social and environmental organisations, as well as other stakeholders in the economy and society, to make sound, informed, and environmentally and socially responsible investment decisions that serve the efficient functioning of the market. The provision of reliable and systematised sources of information is likewise of particular relevance for researchers and practitioners in academia, who engage in empirical or theoretical research into financial markets. Ensuring easier access to public information, including to information provided on a voluntary basis, is also necessary in order to increase opportunities for the growth and visibility of and innovation by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Rolling out common Union data spaces in crucial sectors, including the financial sector, serves the purpose of providing easy access to reliable sources of information in those sectors.

In its communication of 24 September 2020 entitled ‘A Capital Markets Union for people and businesses – new action plan’ (the ‘CMU Action Plan’), the Commission proposed to improve public access to entities’ financial and non-financial information by building a European single access point (ESAP). The communication of the Commission of 24 September 2020 entitled ‘A digital finance strategy for the EU’ (the ‘Digital Finance Strategy’) set out in general terms how the Union could promote the digital transformation of finance in the coming years, in particular how to promote data-driven finance. Subsequently, in its communication of 6 July 2021 entitled ‘Strategy for Financing the Transition to a Sustainable Economy’, the Commission placed sustainable finance at the heart of the financial system as a key means of achieving the green transition of the Union economy, as part of the European Green Deal set out in the Commission’s communication of 11 December 2019.

For the green transition of the Union economy to succeed through sustainable finance, it is essential that information related to the sustainability of businesses be easily accessible to investors so that they are better informed when making decisions about investments. For those purposes, public access to the financial and non-financial information of entities such as companies, businesses and financial institutions needs to be improved. An efficient means of doing so at Union level is to establish a centralised platform, ESAP, giving electronic public access to all relevant information.

ESAP should provide the public with easy, centralised access to information about entities and their products that is made public and is of relevance to financial services, capital markets, sustainability and diversity, but should exclude marketing information. Such access is needed in order to meet the rising demand for investable and diversified financial products...