Regulation (EU) 2023/2869 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 amending certain Regulations as regards the establishment and functioning of the European single access point (Text with EEA relevance)
Regulation (EU) 2023/2869 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 13 December 2023amending certain Regulations as regards the establishment and functioning of the European single access point(Text with EEA relevance)THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114 thereof,Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social CommitteeOJ C 290, 29.7.2022, p. 58.,Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedurePosition of the European Parliament of 9 November 2023 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 27 November 2023.,Whereas:(1)Easy and structured access to data, including to information provided on a voluntary basis, is important to enable decision makers in the economy and society to make sound decisions that serve the efficient functioning of the market. Such access 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 European data spaces in crucial sectors, including the financial sector, serves the purpose of providing easy access to reliable sources of information in those sectors. The financial sector is itself expected to undergo a digital transformation in the coming years and the Union should support that transformation, in particular by promoting data-driven finance. Furthermore, putting sustainable finance at the heart of the financial system is a key means of achieving the green transition of the Union economy. For that green transition to succeed, it is essential that information related to the sustainability and social governance of businesses is easily accessible to investors so that they are better informed when making decisions about investments. For those purposes, public access to financial, non-financial and environmental-, social- and governance-related information about natural or legal persons ("entities") that are themselves required to make such information public, or that publicly disclose such information to a collection body on a voluntary basis, needs to be improved. An efficient means of doing so at Union level is to establish a centralised platform giving electronic access to all relevant information.(2)In its communication of 24 September 2020 entitled "A Capital Markets Union for people and businesses - new 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" 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.(3)ESAP is established in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2023/2859 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 establishing a European single access point providing centralised access to publicly available information of relevance to financial services, capital markets and sustainability (OJ L, 2023/2859, 20.12.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/2859/oj). in order to provide the public with easy centralised access to information about entities and their products that is of relevance to financial services, capital markets and sustainability, which authorities and entities are required to publish pursuant to Union legislative acts in those fields. Such publication should be carried out in accordance with a "file once" principle and without entailing any additional disclosure requirements beyond those specified by law. In addition, any entity governed by the law of a Member State should be able to submit to a collection body, on a voluntary basis, information about its economic activities that is of relevance to financial services or capital markets, or that concerns sustainability, with a view to making that information accessible on ESAP in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/2859.(4)A number of Regulations in the field of financial services, capital markets and sustainability should be amended in order to enable the functioning of ESAP. To achieve the sound and efficient functioning of ESAP in a proportionate manner, the scaling-up of the collection and submission of information needs to be gradual. It is intended that the requirement to make information available to ESAP constitutes an integral part of the sectoral Union legislative acts listed in the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 and of any further Union legislative act which provides for centralised access to information on ESAP. The information to be made accessible on ESAP and the collection bodies designated for the collection of that information could be revisited as part of the review of those sectoral Union legislative acts, to ensure that ESAP provides market participants with easy centralised access to the information they need and that ESAP becomes the point of reference.(5)ESAP should be established with an ambitious timeframe, while taking intermediate steps to ensure its operational soundness and efficiency. In particular, sufficient time should be allocated for the technical implementation of ESAP and for the collection of information to be put in place in Member States. The development of ESAP should have an initial phase of 12 months, to grant sufficient time to Member States and the European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority) (ESMA) established by Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/77/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 84). to establish the IT infrastructure and test it on the basis of the collection of a limited number of information flows. Subsequently, the development of ESAP should gradually incorporate, over time, an additional number of information flows and functionalities at a pace that allows for ESAP’s sound and efficient development. The functioning of ESAP should be assessed on a regular basis over the course of its implementation and operation to allow for any adjustments to meet the needs of its users and to ensure its technical efficiency.(6)For the purposes of the functioning of ESAP, collection bodies should be designated to collect information from entities that is of relevance to financial services, capital markets and sustainability. In the absence of a collection body already established under Union law, Member States should retain flexibility in organising the collection of information in their jurisdiction, should designate at least one collection body, as defined in Regulation (EU) 2023/2859, to collect and store information, and should notify ESMA accordingly. For the purpose of making information accessible on ESAP in a cost-efficient manner, the collection, transmission and storage of information should be based, to the extent possible, on existing collection, transmission and storage procedures and infrastructure in place at the national level as well as those in place for the transmission of information from the collection bodies to ESMA.(7)To ensure that ESAP provides timely access to information that is of relevance to financial services, capital markets and sustainability as set out in Regulation (EU) 2023/2859, entities should submit their information to a collection body at the same time as they make that information public. In turn, the collection bodies should make the information available to ESAP in an automated manner. The collection bodies should draw, to the extent possible, upon existing information collection procedures and infrastructure, at Union and national level, for the transmission of information to ESMA without undue delay.(8)In order for the information on ESAP to be digitally usable, entities should submit to the collection bodies the information in a data extractable format or, where required by Union law, in a machine-readable format. The information submitted by entities to the collection bodies should be accompanied by the metadata requested by those collection bodies. The Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing technical standards developed by the European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority) (EBA) established by Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/78/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 12)., by the European Supervisory Authority (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) (EIOPA) established by Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 1094/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/79/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 48)., or by ESMA (known collectively as "European Supervisory Authorities" or "ESAs"), specifying the metadata for each piece of information, how the data in the information is to be structured, the information for which a machine-readable format is required and which machine-readable format is to be used in such cases. As regards implementing technical standards concerning sustainability information, the ESAs, acting through the Joint Committee, should liaise with EFRAG on the development of those draft standards. The introduction of a machine-readable format should be justified by an analysis that takes into account the costs and benefits for entities and for users of the information and also for any other concerned parties, in particular the collection bodies, competent authorities and ESAs.(9)The collection bodies should not be responsible for verifying the accuracy of the content of the information submitted by entities, unless mandated to do so in accordance with the applicable Union legislative acts listed in the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2023/2859. Entities that submit information on a mandatory basis should be responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the information submitted pursuant to their legal obligations under the applicable Union legislative acts listed in that Annex or under national law.(10)The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39). and delivered formal comments on 19 January 2022.(11)The European Central Bank provided its opinion on 7 June 2022OJ C 307, 12.8.2022, p. 3..(12)Since the objective of this Regulation, namely, to harmonise the disclosure requirements for the public information that should be accessible through ESAP, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.(13)The following Regulations should therefore be amended accordingly:Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on credit rating agencies (OJ L 302, 17.11.2009, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) No 236/2012 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 236/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 on short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps (OJ L 86, 24.3.2012, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) No 345/2013 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 345/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2013 on European venture capital funds (OJ L 115, 25.4.2013, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) No 346/2013 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 346/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2013 on European social entrepreneurship funds (OJ L 115, 25.4.2013, p. 18).;Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (OJ L 176, 27.6.2013, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 537/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities and repealing Commission Decision 2005/909/EC (OJ L 158, 27.5.2014, p. 77).;Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 600/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 84).;Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) (OJ L 352, 9.12.2014, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) 2015/760 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2015/760 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 on European long-term investment funds (OJ L 123, 19.5.2015, p. 98).;Regulation (EU) 2015/2365 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2015/2365 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on transparency of securities financing transactions and of reuse and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (OJ L 337, 23.12.2015, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on indices used as benchmarks in financial instruments and financial contracts or to measure the performance of investment funds and amending Directives 2008/48/EC and 2014/17/EU and Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (OJ L 171, 29.6.2016, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC (OJ L 168, 30.6.2017, p. 12).;Regulation (EU) 2017/1131 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2017/1131 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on money market funds (OJ L 169, 30.6.2017, p. 8).;Regulation (EU) 2019/1238 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2019/1238 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on a pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) (OJ L 198, 25.7.2019, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2019/2033 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on the prudential requirements of investment firms and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 575/2013, (EU) No 600/2014 and (EU) No 806/2014 (OJ L 314, 5.12.2019, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector (OJ L 317, 9.12.2019, p. 1).;Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on markets in crypto-assets, and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010 and (EU) No 1095/2010 and Directives 2013/36/EU and (EU) 2019/1937 (OJ L 150, 9.6.2023, p. 40).;Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2023/2631 of European Parliament and of the Council of 22 November 2023 on European Green Bonds and optional disclosures for bonds marketed as environmentally sustainable and for sustainability-linked bonds (OJ L, 2023/2631, 30.11.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/2631/oj).,HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: