Committee Of European Securities Regulators Consults On Minimum Disclosure Requirements For Sovereign Issuers And Financial Information On Prospectus

CESR releases today a consultation paper on possible draft technical measures to implement the Directive on Prospectus. The proposed measures would need to be met when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading. Responses to the consultation paper (Ref. CESR/03-210b and Annexes available on the CESR website) are required by 30 October 2003. This will shape the basis of CESR's final submission to the European Commission requested by 31 December 2003. Interested parties are invited to attend a public hearing to be held in Paris on 9 October 2003 (afternoon) at the CESR offices.

The proposed measures to implement the Prospectus Directive include:

• minimum disclosure requirements for securities issued by EU Member States, Non-EU States and their regional or local authorities. The proposals also include requirements regarding the use of historical financial information to be included in prospectus both for EU and non-EU issuers. This complements CESR's advice on the Prospectus Directive to be submitted to the European Commission on 31 July 2003.
• the dissemination of advertisements in relation to an offer of securities to the public or the admission to trading, in particular before the prospectus has been made available to the public or before the opening of the subscription.

The proposed measures have been developed by an expert group under the chairmanship of Mr Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, Chairman of the Portuguese Securities Commission and supported by Mr Javier Ruiz of the CESR Secretariat. The group is assisted by a Consultative Working Group of experts drawn from a broad range of market participants.

Responses should be addressed by email to Mr. Fabrice Demarigny, Secretary General, CESR, at secretariat@europefesco.org.

CESR strongly urges respondents to ensure comments are submitted by the deadline of 30 October 2003 to enable comments to be fully considered. It may not be possible to reflect comments received after the deadline in CESR's submission to the European Commission on 31 December 2003. CESR will publish all responses on its website, unless a specific request is made to keep a response confidential.