Brussels, 09/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Areas of agreement might be found on 14 January on reform of the financial instruments market, known as MiFID II-MiFIR, as a reference to EU Directive 2004/39/EC and the EMIR regulation.
Agreement was close at hand at the end of last year at the trialogue talks of 18 December, but the European Commission expressed doubts about derivatives contracts for commodities and technical details regarding implementation of the agreed reforms.
A new trialogue meeting will take place in Strasbourg on 14 January on the fringes of the European Parliament's plenary session. This may well be in the final round of talks as a source close to the matter says agreement is likely. The sensitive issue remains access to the derivatives markets, particularly for energy. The Commission wanted at the end of December to reduce the derogations for commodities like gas, electricity, oil and coal because there was the danger that oil and coal would no longer be covered.
The initial timing of the meeting has been extended by two hours, which suggests that an agreement could well be reached, but the above source says that a trialogue meeting has still been pencilled in a fortnight later, just in case, and the change of Presidency might mean that further discussion is needed on areas already agreed upon. (MD/transl.fl)