ESMA has issued its annual European Common Enforcement Priorities (ECEP) Statement for 2023, which sets out the expectations of ESMA and NCAs with regards to specific areas of focus for the enforcement of the annual financial reports of issuers, including financial and sustainability reporting, European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) reporting and alternative performance measures (APMs). In particular, for this year’s ECEP, the areas for attention identified focus on cross-cutting topics, such as climate and environmental-related matters and macroeconomic environment.
Given the importance of climate and environmental-related matters for financial market participants (in particular issuers and investors), ESMA has published, together with the 2023 ECEP a fact-finding exercise addressing the implementation of the Taxonomy Regulation and a report on disclosures of climate matters in IFRS Financial statements. The three documents are accessible below:
ESMA believes that these documents will greatly assist issuers, supervisory bodies and auditors in the process of improving disclosures regarding climate and environmental-related matters, as well as investors in better understanding them.
In order to allow market participants to familiarise themselves with Inline XBRL, ESMA makes available a Proof of Concept (PoC) illustrating a concrete application of the proposed format requirements included in the draft Implementing Technical Standard (ITS) on forms, formats and templates for the crypto-asset white papers under Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA)[1] currently in consultation[2].
The PoC includes:
A draft taxonomy (covering only a section of a crypto-asset white paper) which would be made available by ESMA
An xHTML file (also containing XBRL tags), which illustrates what a section of a crypto-asset white paper in Inline XBRL would look like
An Excel converter into Inline XBRL, which displays how it would be possible to create an Inline XBRL file without the use of complicated software tools (in this case, using a simple Macro in an editable Excel)
Stakeholders are invited to download the Excel converter (content may need to be enabled) and test how it can be easily customised by including new content in column “C” and transformed into an Inline XBRL document by clicking on the “Generate iXBRL output” icon. This will generate a new xHTML document reflecting the edited content.
Please note the following when viewing this PoC:
These documents are solely for the purposes of the PoC. ESMA publishes this material in order to inform the public as to how the crypto-asset white papers could work if Inline XBRL is adopted as format and to provide the opportunity for feedback in the framework of the abovementioned consultation process for the development of the draft ITS on forms, formats and templates for the crypto-asset white papers[3].
ESMA does not accept liability or responsibility in relation to the published material as the purpose of the PoC is to showcase how a simple Excel file can be converted into a machine readable Inline XBRL document.
As the PoC is to assist in determining how to best develop the draft ITS on forms, formats and templates for the crypto-asset white papers, the requirements that will be included in the ESMA final draft of such ITS might differ from the draft rules that were applied to prepare this PoC. Moreover, the draft ITS that ESMA will submit to the European Commission may be subject, among other things, to amendments by the European Commission, that will adopt the relevant Commission Implementing Regulation on forms, formats and templates for the crypto-asset white papers. Therefore, the published material is not and may not be considered to provide guidance on or interpretation of any legal acts of any source whatsoever. No party should attempt to infer how a crypto-asset white paper should be prepared from the published material or the manner of its presentation.
[1] Regulation (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).
[3] According to Articles 6(11), 19(10) and 51(11) of MiCA ESMA, in cooperation with EBA, shall develop draft implementing technical standards to establish standard forms, formats and templates for the crypto-asset white paper shall be made available in a machine-readable format.
