LegalizeCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2179 of 12 September 2025 laying down implementing technical standards for the application of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the standard forms, templates, and procedures for the provision of the information for an application for registration as an external reviewer for European Green Bonds
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 November 2023 on European Green Bonds and optional disclosures for bonds marketed as environmentally sustainable and for sustainability-linked bonds (1), and in particular Article 23(7), fourth subparagraph thereof,
Whereas:
(1) The way that information in an application for registration as an external reviewer is provided should enable the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to assess whether the conditions referred to in Article 23(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 are fulfilled, including the conditions laid down in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2180 (2).
(2) To safeguard security and enhance data management and usability, the standard forms, templates, and procedures that applicants should use when they apply for registration as an external reviewer should allow for digital means of registration. Any information that applicants submit to ESMA in an application for registration should therefore be machine-readable and be provided in a durable medium.
(3) To assist ESMA in identifying the documents that an applicant has submitted as part of the application for registration, a unique reference number should be provided to correspond to each document.
(4) For assurance and accountability purposes, applicants that submit an application for registration to ESMA should complement that application with a letter signed by a member of its senior management, attesting that the submitted information is accurate and complete to the best of that member’s knowledge.
(5) This Regulation is based on the draft implementing technical standard submitted to the Commission by ESMA.
(6) This Regulation respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and notably the right to protection of personal data. The processing of personal data for the purposes of this Regulation should be carried out in accordance with Union law on the protection of personal data. In that regard, any processing of personal data performed by ESMA in application of this Regulation should be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3). Any processing of personal data performed by entities applying for external reviewer within application of this Regulation should be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) and national requirements on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.
(7) To enable ESMA to conduct the assessment for the purposes of the initial registration, while ensuring appropriate safeguards, personal data relating to applicants for registration as an external reviewer should be kept by external reviewers and ESMA for no longer than five years after that applicant has ceased to perform its function where the applicant has been registered as an external reviewer. Where ESMA has refused to register an applicant external reviewer or where the applicant withdraws its application, personal data relating to that applicant should be kept by ESMA no longer than five years after the refusal of the registration of the applicant or after the withdrawal of the application.
(8) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and delivered formal comments on 7 July 2025.
(9) ESMA has conducted an open public consultation on the draft implementing technical standard on which this Regulation is based. It has analysed the potential related costs and benefits and requested the advice of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5),
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Format to follow for the provision of the information referred to in Article 23(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631
Applicants for registration as an external reviewer for European Green Bonds shall submit the information referred to in Article 23(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 in the format set out in the Annexes to this Regulation.
Applicants shall provide ESMA with the information referred to in Article 23(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 in a machine-readable format which:
(a) allows the information to remain accessible for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the application;
(b) allows for the unchanged reproduction of the information stored.
Applicants shall provide a unique reference number to each document that they submit to ESMA. Applicants shall ensure that the documents they submit clearly identifies to which specific requirement of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 it refers and in which document that information is provided. Applicants shall submit the table set out in Annex I to this Regulation as part of their application and shall clearly identify the document in which they have provided the information required.
Where a requirement of Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 does not apply to the application for registration, applicants shall state that in the relevant table set out in the Annex to this Regulation and shall provide an explanation.
Applicants shall accompany their application for registration with a letter signed by a member of the applicants’ senior management, attesting that the submitted information is accurate and complete to the best of that member’s knowledge, as of the date of that submission.
Personal data relating to applicants for registration as an external reviewer shall be kept by external reviewers and ESMA for as long as it is necessary for the assessment of the initial registration and no longer than five years after that applicant has ceased to perform its function. Where ESMA has refused the registration of the applicant external reviewer or where the applicant withdraws its application, personal data relating to that applicant should be kept by ESMA no longer than five years after the refusal of the registration of the applicant or after the withdrawal of the application.
Article 2
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 12 September 2025.
For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN
(1) OJ L, 2023/2631, 30.11.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/2631/oj.
(2) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2180 of 12 September 2025 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the conditions for the registration of external reviewers and the criteria for assessing the sound and prudent management of external reviewers, the appropriateness of the knowledge, experience and training of the external reviewers’employees and the conditions under which external reviewers outsource their assessment activities (OJ L, 2025/2180, 30.12.2025, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2025/2180/oj).
(3) Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/1725/oj).
(4) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj).
(5) Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/77/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 84, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2010/1095/oj).
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