Getting ready for the European green bond standard - Stakeholder workshop

Recording

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Summary

The European green bond standard is a new tool designed to open up opportunities for issuers and investors. The aim is to create a gold standard for green bonds and support the financing of assets needed for the low‑carbon transition.

The standard, which is voluntary, will be available to issuers as of 21 December 2024. It relies on the detailed criteria of the EU taxonomy to define green economic activities, ensures high levels of transparency and creates an EU‑level registration and supervision system for companies carrying out pre‑ and post‑issuance reviews of issuers’ disclosures. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will be supervising these external reviewers.

To raise awareness of the European green bond standard and to support its application and use, the European Commission organised a technical workshop for stakeholders. The event took place online only and was aimed at supporting prospective issuers, investors, external reviewers and other market participants, as well as national supervisors. The objective was to enable an interactive discussion, addressing legal and practical issues linked to the use of the new standard.

Around 600 participants joined the workshop virtually, submitting a large number of questions.

The main issues discussed were:

• how issuers can meet the requirements linked to the EU taxonomy, as well as other detailed questions linked to the rules on the use of proceeds
   
• the way the European green bond standard interacts with the Prospectus Regulation and the changes coming from the Listing Act
   
• the specific requirements of sovereign issuers
   
• and the role and tasks of external reviewers.