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ESMA ESEF Taxonomy

CONTEXT The European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) is an independent EU Authority that contributes to safeguarding the stability of the European Union’s financial system by enhancing the protection of investors and promoting stable and orderly financial markets.

The European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) is the electronic reporting format in which issuers on EU regulated markets shall publish their annual financial reports from 1st January 2020. Additionally, it is progressively becoming mandatory for new Sustainability Reports under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

ESMA was assigned the responsibility to develop regulatory technical standards (RTS) to specify this electronic reporting format, and the associated taxonomy necessary to publish ESEF reports. Together with the ESEF Taxonomy, ESMA is publishing a conformance suite, to facilitate implementation of the ESEF Regulation and ensure that XBRL tools are meeting the ESEF taxonomy requirements. 

The current version is ESMA ESEF Taxonomy 2021, to be used for FullYear 2023 financial reports

SUCCESSIVE TAXONOMIES On 21st March 2019, ESMA has published a the ESMA ESEF taxonomy 2017 to be used for representing the IFRS consolidated primary financial statements in iXBRL. The ESEF taxonomy is an extension of the IFRS Taxonomy. The package includes entry points in all EU languages. 

The taxonomy has been updated on 20th December 2019, in a version known as ESMA ESEF taxonomy 2019. This was valid for FullYear2020 filings. The following version has been made available and valid for FullYear2020 and FullYear2021 filings : ESMA ESEF taxonomy 2020. The next version has been published on 10th December 2021 to enter into force at the end March 2022 for FullYear2022 and FullYear2023 filings : ESMA ESEF taxonomy 2021. There was no ESMA ESEF taxonomy 2022. The ESMA ESEF taxonomy 2023 is expected to be published during Q4 2024. So far, the ESEF taxonomy only includes IFRS tags; it is expected that the taxonomy will later contain ESRS tags for digital sustainability reports.

Preparers can access the taxonomy in the form of a set of electronic XBRL files that are available in a machine-readable and freely downloadable format. 

Languages Image VIEW THE ESMAS TAXONOMIES (in all 23 language) (access the latest “ESMA ESEF XBRL Taxonomy” through a taxonomy viewer, requires to create a free login). 

Relation to other taxonomies

IFRS Taxonomy

The IFRS Taxonomy, issued by the IFRS Foundation, is the global standard that has been specifically developed to mark-up IFRS financial statements with XBRL tags and. By providing the IFRS Taxonomy, the International Accounting Standards Board can ensure that the taxonomy used is an accurate representation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS Standards).

ESRS Taxonomy

EFRAG has published a draft-Taxonomy for tagging of ESG/Sustainability reports under ESRS.

LEI taxonomy

It is required that issuers identify themselves in the XBRL reports using the Legal Entity Identifier [LEI]. Therefore, the XBRL International LEI taxonomy is referred by the ESEF taxonomy to provide means to identify and verify the validity of the LEI of the enterprise in the Inline XBRL reports.

Languages Image BROWSE PUBLIC TAXONOMIES INCLUDING IFRS&FRAG ONES (access through a taxonomy viewer, requires to create a free login)