Draft:European Single Electronic Format

The European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) is a standardized format for publishing annual financial reports. ESEF was developed as a result of the 2013 Transparency Directive (Directive 2013/50/EU). , which aimed to harmonize the transparent disclosure of financial information across the EU. The European Securities and Markets Authority has been given the task to develop the technical specifications of the electronic reporting format.

Using the ESEF standard is required for all organizations whose securities are traded on financial markets regulated by the EU. It entered into force in 2019, with the first ESEF-compliant financial reports required for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2020.

Technical Specification
ESEF uses Inline XBRL (iXBRL), a digital format that combines eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) and xHTML, enabling both machine-readability and human-readability of financial statements. The ESEF taxonomy, based on the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) taxonomy, provides a common set of XBRL tags for reporting financial information