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The European Commission is taking action against several EU member states that have failed to notify the Commission of measures they must adopt to transpose EU directives into their national laws, with the deadlines that have already expired. The Commission sends letters of formal notice to these states, giving them two months to complete the directives’ transposition; otherwise, the Commission may issue a reasoned opinion, before bringing “the cases” to the Court of Justice. Three directives attracted Commission’s attention, on: the European single access point, the e-evidence and the capital requirements directives.
European Single Access Point
The European single access point (ESAP) Omnibus Directive is part of the broader ESAP legislative package aimed at providing investors and stakeholders with a centralised mechanism offering easily accessible, comparable and usable public information. This enhances company visibility to investors, potentially increasing sources of financing, benefitting small companies in small capital markets, which may attract more attention from both the EU and international investors. The legislative package foresees three phases for ESAP development, building of the ESAP platform, and gradually adding more disclosures, contributing to the integration of EU capital markets, in line with the Savings and Investments Union objectives. It should facilitate the financing of EU companies, drive growth and boost job creation in the EU. ESAP has three stages of implementation. For the first phase, the EU member states have had to transpose the changes introduced in the Transparency Directive by 10 July 2025; for the second and third phases (involving the aforementioned 15 Directives), the deadline was 10 January 2026.
The first phase begins in July 2026, with companies under the Transparency Directive, Prospectus Regulation and Short Selling Regulation starting to send their disclosures to ESAP. In the following phases, more public disclosures will be added to ESAP, eventually totaling approximately 200 datasets from 50 legal acts.
More in the Regulation (2012) on short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2012/236/oj/eng
The European Single Access Point, ESAP’s Omnibus Directive was adopted to ensure investors’ access to corporate public information. The European Commission decided to open infringement procedures by sending a letter of formal notice to Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden for failing to fully transpose the European Single Access Point (ESAP) Omnibus Directive (Directive 2023/2864) in relation to the changes introduced in 15 Directives calling for disclosures to be sent to ESAP in a specific format with accompanying metadata. The deadline for the transposition of these changes was 10 January 2026.
Note: The 15 directives are: Directive 2002/87/EC, Directive 2004/25/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC, Directive 2007/36/EC, Directive 2009/65/EC, Directive 2009/138/EC, Directive 2011/61/EU, Directive 2013/34/EU, Directive 2013/36/EU, Directive 2014/59/EU, Directive 2014/65/EU, Directive (EU) 2016/97, Directive (EU) 2016/2341, Directive (EU) 2019/2034, and Directive (EU) 2019/2162.
Thus, the Commission is sending the letters of formal notice to the mentioned 19 states, which now have two months to complete their transposition and notify their measures to the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.
The Capital Requirements Directive
The Sixth Capital Requirements Directive has been a regulatory tool regarding the EU’s supervisory powers, sanctions, third-country branches as well as environmental, social and governance risks involved in the European banking and capital markets.
The European Commission decided to open infringement procedures by sending a letter of formal notice to Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden for failing to fully transpose the amending Sixth Capital Requirements Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1619 – CRD6).*)
The CRD6 is an important update of the EU prudential banking framework that aims to harmonise the rules for the provision of banking services by third-country undertakings in the EU, by subjecting them to a set of minimum requirements and minimum harmonised rules for the provision of services.
It also seeks to harmonise supervisory powers and tools in a number of areas, such as prudentially relevant transactions, periodic penalty payments, fit-and-proper assessments and independence of supervisors; and to further strengthen the provisions on environmental, social and governance risks by better integrating their management into the prudential framework.
*) More on the 6th CRD (2024)in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1619/oj/eng
It benefits EU citizens by providing financial stability, ensuring that banks can provide loans and services to citizens in every economic circumstance; the deadline to transpose the Directive into national law was 10 January 2026. Presently, 22 EU member states failed to communicate full transposition of the Directive to the Commission.
The Commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to these member states, which now have two months to respond, complete their transposition and notify their measures to the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.
E-evidence directive
The European Commission decided to open infringement procedures by sending a letter of formal notice to Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Finland, and Sweden for failing to communicate full transposition of the e-evidence Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/1544).
The e-evidence directive was adopted to provide national authorities with a reliable channel to obtain e-evidence from service providers in the EU even if their headquarters are in a third-country. By supporting the work of judicial and law enforcement authorities, it contributes to make EU citizens safer. Under the Directive, all service providers offering services in the Union must designate a legal representative or a designated establishment to receive, comply with and enforce requests to gather electronic evidence from law enforcement authorities.
More on the e-evidence directive (2023) in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2023/1544/oj/eng
Note. As the e-evidence directive postulate: the absence of the EU-wide approach results in legal uncertainty affecting both service providers and national authorities. Disparate and possibly conflicting obligations apply to service providers established or offering services in different EU states, which results in such service providers being subject to different penalties in the event of violations.
Such divergences in the framework for criminal proceedings will likely further expand because of the growing importance of communication and information society services in our daily lives and our societies. Besides, such divergences not only represent an obstacle to the proper functioning of the internal market, but also entail problems for the establishment and correct functioning of the Union’s area of freedom, security and justice.
For example, public prosecutors or judges in the EU can quickly obtain data relevant to criminal investigations or proceedings from a company based outside the EU by contacting its EU legal representative.
The EU member states have had until 18 February 2026 to transpose the Directive into their national law. Presently these mentioned EU member states failed to communicate full transposition of the Directive.
The Commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to the mentioned member states, which now have two months to respond, complete their transposition and notify their measures to the Commission; in the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.
Main source and reference: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/inf_26_679