The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an update to its statement on practices governed by the Takeover Bid Directive (TBD), focused on shareholder cooperation issues relating to acting in concert and the appointment of board members. The update concerns a change to the Croatian creep-in threshold and secondary threshold in Appendix B. The statement contains a White List of activities that shareholders can cooperate on without the presumption of acting in concert. It also contains information on how shareholders may cooperate in order to secure board member appointments by setting out factors that national authorities may take into account when considering whether shareholders are acting in concert.The statement is in response to a request by the European Commission for clarity on these issues, following its 2012 report on the application of the TBD. It is based on information collected about the TBD’s application and common practices across the European Economic Area (EEA). The statement was prepared by the Takeover Bids Network, a permanent working group, under ESMA’s auspices, that promotes the exchange of information on practices and application of the TBD across EEA.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (‘ESMA’) issues this Public Statement which defines the European common enforcement priorities in order to promote consistent application of the International Financial Reporting Standards (‘IFRS’) as indicated in the ESMA Guidelines on enforcement of financial information.As in the previous years, ESMA, together with European national enforcers, identified financial reporting topics which, listed companies and their auditors should particularly consider when preparing and auditing, respectively, the IFRS financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2014. In addition to these common priorities, national enforcers might also set additional enforcement priorities focusing on other relevant topics.ESMA, together with the European national enforcers, will pay particular attention to these common enforcement priorities as well as priorities identified in previous years, when monitoring and assessing the application of all relevant IFRS requirements. National enforcers will continue to focus on material issues in the financial statements that are relevant for an individual issuer under examination. On the basis of examinations performed, national enforcers will take corrective actions whenever material misstatements are identified. ESMA will report on findings regarding these priorities in its Report on the 2015 enforce-ment activities.