Public ASCG event on the ESAP legislative proposal with great response

On 16 March 2022, the ASCG hosted an online panel discussion on the legislative proposal published by the European Commission on 25 November 2021 to establish a European Single Access Point (ESAP) for company information and product data.

Approximately 120 representatives (preparers, audit firms, users, SMEs and associations) participated the event.

During the event, a representative of the European Commission’s Directorate General FISMA first presented an overview of the contents of the European Commission’s legislative proposal.

This was followed by a panel discussion. The panel participants discussed the European Commission’s proposal from different perspectives. In addition to the Commission representative Jean-Philippe Rabine (Unit Corporate Reporting, Audit and Rating Agencies), Tim Ockenga (Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft e.V.) representing the user perspective, Richard Bössen (AMANA consulting GmbH) as an IT specialist and Gero Bothe (Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG) representing the preparers’ perspective each presented their view on the legislative proposal. In the course of the discussion, the panel discussed, among other things, the following aspects of the ESAP legislative proposal:

• Objective of the ESAP legislative proposal,
• On the assignment of responsibilities: EU vs. member states,
• Critical success factors for achieving the objectives of ESAP and
• Opportunities in the area of sustainability reporting.

Through the different perspectives presented, the participants gained in-depth insights into selected aspects of the legislative proposal.

In addition, the event offered participants the opportunity to exchange views on ESAP in an open Q&A session.