Brussels, 03/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has postponed the unveiling of its White Paper on investment funds until later this month at the earliest but the consultation process launched with the publication of a Green Paper in July 2005 and a public hearing in the summer (see EUROPE 8991 and 9242) is expected to lead to the launch of targeted legislation amending Directive 85/611/EEC on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) to make the rules more conducive to fostering the spread of cross-border investment funds.
The White Paper will identify obstacles to the cross-border development of UCITS. There are currently 30,000 such funds in the EU, worth EUR 5000 bn (half the EU's GDP) and they are growing by 10% a year. EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is expected to suggest facilitating notification procedure to make it easier for investment funds to sell their products in other Member States from the one where they are established. Other measures will deal with problems encountered with merging investment funds and the taxation of mergers, along with problems encountered with asset pooling. (mb)