Solvency II (Directive 2009/138/EC) is the harmonised prudential framework governing insurance and reinsurance undertakings across the European Economic Area. In force since 1 January 2016, it replaced the patchwork of national Solvency I regimes with a single risk-based capital standard that aligns more closely with the economic reality of insurers' balance sheets. The 2023 Solvency II review — implemented via Directive (EU) 2025/2 — introduced targeted calibration changes to long-term guarantees, proportionality measures for smaller undertakings, and updated sustainability-related disclosure expectations, all of which flow through into revised QRT templates and reporting instructions.
XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is the machine-readable format mandated by EIOPA for the submission of Quantitative Reporting Templates (QRTs) and certain narrative reports. National competent authorities (NCAs) use XBRL instance documents to load data directly into supervisory databases, run cross-template validations automatically, and feed pan-European aggregation exercises. For insurers, this means every cell in every submitted template must be tagged to the correct concept in the EIOPA taxonomy — there is no acceptable alternative.
