The European Single Access Point (ESAP) is set to improve public access to public information about companies, both financial and non-financial, such as on sustainability, social governance or the workplace diversity of businesses. This in turn should make SMEs more visible and support the green transition through sustainable finance, as investors and other key capital market participants as well as non-governmental organisations would be better informed when making decisions about investments.

In addition to the information made public because of EU law, MEPs proposed that from 1 January 2027 ESAP should also make available information that any EU business has made public on a voluntary basis and that each member state should designate at least one entity to collect such information. Information provided voluntarily would have to be uniform in format and comparable in substance, value, use and reliability to that submitted on a mandatory basis. Furthermore, information containing personal data should not be stored on ESAP.

MEPs also insisted that ESAP should not create any new reporting requirements but should instead build upon existing disclosure requirements, procedures and infrastructure stemming from EU legislation. The information on ESAP should be available free of charge, except for fees charged for specific services such as downloads of large volumes of information of commercial relevance.

In two additional separate votes, MEPs adopted changes to certain regulations and directives to align them with the new access point and thereby ensure easier access to public information crucial to increasing opportunities for small and medium business growth, visibility, and innovation, including easier access to voluntary information.