13/07/26 (Agence Europe) – As part of the first phase of implementation of the European Single Access Point (‘ESAP’) (see EUROPE 12643/27), the European Securities and Markets Authority (‘ESMA’) announced on Friday 10 July that it was launching the collection of information from Officially Appointed Mechanisms and National Competent Authorities. This stage marks the beginning of the process of populating the future European platform, which will offer, from July 2027, free and centralised access to financial and sustainability information published by companies concerning their products. Over the next twelve months, ESMA will gradually build up this database with information covered in particular by the Transparency Directive, the Prospectus Regulation and the Short-selling Regulation. (BD)