Brussels, 16/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The inter-institutional negotiations on 15 October on the draft regulation to enhance governance for the establishment of benchmarks made progress on proportionality, explains sources at the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU. The various parties agree that extra trialogue talks will be needed in November, which the Presidency hopes will be conclusive. Sources at the EP say that more time will probably be needed.
The European Parliament is reported to have insisted that the oversight function and code of conduct should not apply to all benchmarks, in order to avoid overburdening administrations, particularly for very small benchmarks. The Presidency is said to have stressed the importance of these criteria for a credible regime and that this is in line with the principles laid down by the International Securities Commissions Organisation (IOSCO). The Presidency, however, accepted the EP's request for different criteria for significant and critical benchmarks (see EUROPE 11396). The EP was flexible over the reference value threshold for deciding on categories of significant benchmarks. The European Commission and Council felt this threshold was too high, fearing that a number of benchmarks would escape regulation altogether. The Luxembourg Presidency was flexible over the threshold question but stressed that the basic principles should apply to all benchmarks across the board. Flexibility will therefore depend on the package itself.
The EP expressed concern about the fact that small commodity benchmarks might be unnecessarily caught in the net of the regulation. The Presidency, supported by the Commission, recognised the need for a tailored regime for commodity benchmarks but without any proportionality being applied to them. It is now for the Commission to draw up a nonpaper on the scope and treatment of such benchmarks.
The EP also stressed the importance it attaches to the need to include qualitative criteria for defining critical benchmarks, to such an extent that it is prepared to make its agreement to the regulation as a whole dependent on this. The Presidency was open to discussing the matter with the member states while keeping the €400 billion threshold set out in the initial Council negotiating position (see EUROPE 11250). The Presidency promises to submit a comprehensive package on categorisation and proportionality ahead of the next trialogue talks on 28 October.
Finally, for the third country regime that seeks to establish which benchmarks generated outside the EU can be used if there are no regulations of a similar scale or no plans for any. There is reported to be consensus around the idea of partial equivalence as a way of finding a solution for countries like Japan and Singapore, which regulate some types of benchmarks. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)