European Single Access Point (ESAP) takes shape with legislation published in the EU’s Official Journal

RegCORE Client Alert | Capital Markets Union

QuickTake

On 20 December 2023, the ESAP RegulationAvailable here and which establishes ESAPShow Footnote along with the ESAP Omnibus RegulationAvailable here and which amends 21 existing EU Regulations’ requirements to facilitate ESAP’s functionality.Show Footnote and the ESAP Omnibus DirectiveAvailable here and which amends 16 existing EU Directives’ requirements to facilitate ESAP’s functionality.Show Footnote were published in the EU’s Official Journal. This legislative package amends existing EU legislation in financial services, capital markets and sustainability to enable ESAP’s functionality. The versions published in the Official Journal are substantially the same as those texts adopted by the Council of the EU on 27 November 2023 and enter into force on 9 January 2024.  Member States have until 10 January 2026 to transpose the ESAP Omnibus Directive into national law, except for Article 3 (which relates to the EU’s Transparency Directive, as amended), where the deadline is 10 July 2025. The majority of reporting via ESAP will commence in 2026 and then further rules coming online in 2028 and 2030. Between now and then, a number of implementing and regulatory technical standards will need to be consulted on. Firms will want to take preparatory action as soon as possible to become ESAP-compliant as well as to be positioned to use data made available in ESAP. 

The ESAP legislative package, which is a core deliverable of the EU’s Capital Markets Union efforts, aims to enhance transparency, comparability and accessibility of information for investors, issuers, supervisors and other stakeholders, as well as to support the development of the EU capital markets union, the EU green deal and the EU digital strategy. The ESAP platform is expected to become operational by 1 January 2026, subject to the adoption of delegated and implementing acts by the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which will specify further details on the technical and operational aspects of ESAP including as part of its Work Programme for 2024 and beyond as well as in its Data Strategy (2023-2028) (see standalone Client Alerts).

This Client Alert assesses the impact of ESAP on EU markets and steps that market participants will want to consider. This Client Alert should also be read with coverage from PwC Legal’s EU RegCore on the EU’s “Listing Act” available here.