07/10/2020 (Agence Europe) – As announced (see EUROPE 12575/7), the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) approved, on Wednesday 7 October, the negotiating mandate of the EU Council on the proposal to amend the European regulation to grant the European Commission the power to designate, by means of an implementing act, a substitute index for a widely used and discontinued financial benchmark - such as LIBOR - in order to avoid disruption of the financial markets (see EUROPE 12535/14). The EU Council considers that these powers should be conferred on the Commission for “critically important” benchmarks under Regulation 2016/1011, but also for third country benchmarks that are systemically important for the EU. It also proposes to extend the Commission’s mandate to contracts or financial instruments concluded by entities which are not subject to Regulation 2016/1011 but are subject to the legislation of a Member State. See text: https://bit.ly/2GJUvEQ (MF)