Article 45
Powers of competent authorities
1.
In order to fulfil their duties under this Regulation, competent authorities shall have, in accordance with national law, at least the following supervisory and investigatory powers:
(a)
to require issuers to publish the European Green Bond factsheets referred to in Article 10 or to include in those factsheets the information referred to in Annex I;
(b)
to require issuers to publish reviews and assessments;
(c)
to require issuers to publish annual allocation reports or include in annual allocation reports the information referred to in Annex II;
(d)
to require issuers to publish an impact report or include in the impact report the information referred to in Annex III;
(e)
to require issuers to notify the competent authority of the publication in accordance with Article 15(4);
(f)
(g)
to require auditors and the senior management of the issuer to provide relevant information and documents;
(h)
to suspend an offer or admission to trading on a regulated market of European Green Bonds for a maximum of 10 consecutive working days on any single occasion where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the issuer has failed to comply with an obligation pursuant to Title II, Chapter 2, or Article 18 or 19;
(i)
to prohibit an offer or admission to trading on a regulated market of European Green Bonds where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the issuer continues to fail to comply with an obligation pursuant to Title II, Chapter 2, or Article 18 or 19;
(j)
to suspend advertisements for a maximum of 10 consecutive working days, or require issuers of European Green Bonds or financial intermediaries concerned to suspend advertisements for a maximum of 10 consecutive working days on any single occasion where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the issuer has failed to comply with an obligation pursuant to Title II, Chapter 2, or Article 18 or 19;
(k)
(l)
(m)
(n)
following a three-month period after the requirement referred to in point (l) of this subparagraph, to make public the fact that the issuer of European Green Bonds no longer complies with Article 3 as regards the use of the designation ‘European Green Bond’ or ‘EuGB’, and to require that issuer to publish that information on its website;
(o)
to carry out on-site inspections or investigations at sites other than the private residences of natural persons, and for that purpose to enter premises in order to access documents and other data in any form, where a reasonable suspicion exists that documents and other data related to the subject matter of the inspection or investigation may be relevant to prove an infringement of this Regulation.
Where necessary under national law, the competent authorities may ask the relevant judicial authority to decide on the use of the powers referred to in the first subparagraph.
2.
Competent authorities shall exercise their functions and powers referred to in paragraph 1 in any of the following ways:
(a)
directly;
(b)
in collaboration with other authorities;
(c)
under their responsibility by delegation to the authorities referred to in point (b);
(d)
by application to the competent judicial authorities.
3.
Member States shall ensure that appropriate measures are in place so that competent authorities have all the supervisory and investigatory powers that are necessary to fulfil their duties.
4.
A person making information available to a competent authority pursuant to this Regulation shall not be considered to be infringing any restriction on the disclosure of information imposed by contract or by any legislative, regulatory or administrative provision, and shall not be subject to liability of any kind for making such information available to a competent authority.