Financial Services: European Commission Launches Of Securities Directives

The European Commission has published a “Lamfalussy league table” on Member States’ success in meeting deadlines for writing into national law a series of securities Directives that were adopted as part of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) launched in 1999. The league table shows that 20 Member States did not fully implement the prospectus Directive (2003/71/EC) before the deadline of 1 July 2005, which could disrupt the smooth introduction of the "single passport for issuers", intended to make securities available to investors either through a public offer procedure or by admitting their shares to trading (see IP/03/1018). Also, it shows that 16 Member States did not fully implement the market abuse Directive (2003/6/EC) and its implementing measures for which the deadline was 12 October 2004. It is available at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/securities/transposition/index_en.htm

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: “Over the last six years we have made great strides towards a more open, integrated and competitive European financial market. However, some Member States are still lagging behind on the securities Directives. This is frankly very disappointing, bordering on the lamentable. This is going to hamper the efficiency of Europe’s capital markets and the vital ‘single passport for issuers’. I hope this league table will encourage these Member States to act quickly and I strongly urge them to do so. We will continue to monitor the situation like hawks.”

This year, the legislative phase for the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) draws to a close. The Commission’s key priority for the next five years is to make certain the rules work in practice throughout the EU. These rules must be implemented correctly and on time by Member States and then applied in practice and vigorously enforced.

As part of this, the Commission has launched a league table covering all legislation adopted under the “Lamfalussy process”, which involves framework Directives adopted by the Council and European Parliament as well as related implementing measures drawn up by the Commission and adopted by the Commission through comitology. At this stage, the league table covers the Market Abuse Directive (2003/6/EC) and its three technical implementing Directives (2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC) and the Prospectus Directive (2003/71/EC). In future, it will also cover the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”, 2004/39/EC) and the Transparency Directive (2004/109/EC) as well as their implementing measures.

The Commission hopes that this league table will improve the transparency of Member States’ implementation of these Directives, which in turn should help accelerate implementation. The league table will be regularly updated. It forms part of a series of actions such as close monitoring of implementation, infringement procedures and transposition workshops that the Commission has launched in order to ensure effective application of the securities Directives.

[Graphic in PDF & Word format]

[Graphic in PDF & Word format]