Twenty-four member states have called upon the European Commission to present a legislative proposal to postpone until January 2018 the entry into force of the 'Priips' regulation (1286/14) on the pre-contractual information that retail investors must be able to use to compare certain financial products.
"We call on the Commission to consider postponing only the application date of the Priips regulation, thus without any change to any other provision of the level I regulation. In our view, the Commission should propose a postponement of the application date by 12 months in order to provide sufficient time to clarify open questions and reach the goals of the Priips regulation", the countries concerned (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden) wrote on Monday 19 September.
The Priips regulation brings in a KID key information document, which will be given to retail investors before purchasing financial products. At the end of June, the Commission submitted draft implementing measures of the regulation, detailing the content of this document and the methodology used to calculate certain financial performances. The Parliament rejected these measures in mid-September, a first in the field of financial services (see EUROPE 11624).
Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany) welcomed this statement, which will rule out any reopening of 'Priips' and prevent any excessive lobbying that could jeopardise this entire raft of European legislation. Describing the suggestion to postpone the entry into force by one year as reasonable, he called upon the Commission to act to make sure that 'Priips' does not apply as a stand-alone regulation at the beginning of next year, without its implementing measures. This situation, he argued, would be a source of legal insecurity. According to another parliamentary source, this statement, which echoes an amendment adopted by the Parliament when it rejected the implementing measures, aims to reassure the European Commission before it submits a legislative draft.
"We still want the KID document to apply in time, for the benefit of consumer protection", said Vanessa Mock, on behalf of the Commission. The Commission, which is somewhat annoyed over the matter, has criticised the MEPs, who are divided over the issue, and who came to the party very late, even though they had more than two years to react. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)