Brussels, 09/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 9 December, the permanent representatives of the member states to the EU approved the compromise reached with the European Parliament on the proposed regulation to tighten up the accuracy and integrity of benchmarks. The agreement was reached on 24 November in Strasbourg (see EUROPE 11439). On the sidelines of the meeting of Coreper, the price reporting agencies criticised the final text (see EUROPE 11448).
Coincidentally, the European Commission earlier this week announced the opening of an in-depth investigation to determine whether three producers of ethanol had manipulated the ethanol benchmarks published by the price reporting body, Platts (see EUROPE 11447).
According to the Financial Times, this means that the Commission has quietly dropped a two-year investigation to determine whether BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil agreed to notify distorted prices to Platts in order to manipulate the prices published for various petroleum products, including crude oil. The Commission said that it had no investigation underway into behaviour regarding the indexes for the crude sector. In 2013, the Commission carried out unannounced inspections in the oil and biofuels sector (see EUROPE 10846), but the only in-depth investigation it has ever opened concerns ethanol benchmarks. The inspections which followed in October 2014 and in April of this year covered only the biofuels sector. In the impact assessment attached to the proposed regulation approved by the member states on Wednesday, the Commission highlighted the possible acts of manipulation in both sectors to justify the need for a legislative proposal. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)