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Where have we got to on EMIR?
Practical Law Legal Update 8-509-1656 (Approx. 3 pages)
Where have we got to on EMIR?
by Norton Rose
| Published on 18 Oct 2011 • United Kingdom |
This article is part of the PLC Global Finance September 2011 e-mail update for the United Kingdom.
Speedread
On 22 September 2011, the UK House of Commons European Union Scrutiny Committee published its 41st report. Among the items covered was the progress of the proposed European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) which was covered in a letter that the Committee had received from the Financial Secretary, Mark Hoban MP.
The results of the EU-wide stress test
Simon Lovegrove
One of the questions that a number of people have asked recently is where we have got to with the proposed European Market Infrastructure Regulation, otherwise known as EMIR.
As some of you may remember, at the European Parliament plenary session of 4 July 2011, EMIR was debated and the report on the proposal prepared by rapporteur Werner Langen was approved. However, the European Parliament postponed the final vote on EMIR to allow more time for negotiations with the Council of the European Union (the Council). This retained the possibility of a first reading agreement between the European Parliament and the Council.
At that stage the official line was that EMIR would be finalised at some stage in September 2011. However, in September there were further compromise proposals from the Presidency of the Council and at the time of writing this article (23 September) there was no agreement.
On 22 September, the UK House of Commons European Union Scrutiny Committee published its 41st report. Among the many items covered in this report was the progress of EMIR which was covered in a letter that the Committee had received from the Financial Secretary, Mark Hoban MP. The letter made the following points:
- Because of the summer break there has been limited activity on EMIR.
- However, the Presidency of the Council had circulated a new version of EMIR ahead of a series of meetings of officials, the first of which was on 2 September 2011.
- Discussion then focused on the detail of issues such as the exemption for pension scheme arrangements and the treatment of intra-group transactions. These issues were not resolved and the Presidency agreed that further consideration was needed.
- There was also discussion concerning authorisation and supervision of central counterparties.
- During that discussion, the UK Government once again reiterated the importance of adhering to the political agreement on the new European Supervisory Authorities reached in 2009 and the important principle that, where there are fiscal implications, the national competent authority should have the final say in relation to authorisation and supervision.
- Mr Hoban currently expects this issue to go to the ECOFIN Council on 4 October 2011.
- Further meetings of officials are due to take place before then, along with further iterations of the draft text of EMIR.
- This will provide the UK Government with more information and clarity as to where views of different Member States diverge on the key issues.
Whilst there are still some outstanding issues that need to be resolved between the Council and the European Parliament, I would expect EMIR to be settled by the end of October 2011.