On Wednesday 20 December, the EU Council approved its negotiating position on the regulation on benchmarks.
Presented in October by the European Commission in its communication entitled ‘Long-Term Competitiveness of the EU: Looking Beyond 2030’, this regulation aims to streamline reporting obligations and the overall regulatory burden. The Commission aims to reduce the administrative burden by 25%, without compromising related policy objectives (see EUROPE 13273/19).
The proposal concerns the scope of the rules on benchmarks, the use in the EU of benchmarks provided by an administrator located in a third country and certain reporting requirements.
Under the current rules, EU market participants can only use benchmarks produced or administered in a third country if the country concerned has a framework equivalent to that of the EU, if its benchmark is endorsed by an EU benchmark administrator or if the benchmark is recognised in the EU.
In its negotiating mandate, the Council agreed that the regulatory treatment of commodity benchmarks should be adapted to their specific characteristics.
The Council specified that only benchmarks designated as ‘critical’ or ‘significant’ should remain within the scope of the regulation. This title covers: - benchmarks that reach a quantitative threshold; - those designated by the relevant national competent authority or by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) as aligned with the Paris Agreement; - certain commodity benchmarks.
Administrators of benchmarks which were authorised, registered, endorsed or recognised on the date of application of this amending regulation should not be required to file a new application for authorisation, registration, recognition or endorsement.
Read the Council’s position: https://aeur.eu/f/a7f (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)