The European Parliament decided to raise no
objections to the Commission delegated regulation of 17 May
2016 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European
Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical
standards for the appropriate arrangements, systems and procedures
for disclosing market participants conducting market
soundings.
To recall, Article 11(9) of Regulation
(EU) No 596/2014 (‘the Market Abuse Regulation’)
empowers ESMA to develop draft regulatory technical standards to
determine appropriate arrangements, procedures and record-keeping
requirements for persons to comply with the requirements laid down
that Article.
Article 11(9) of the Market Abuse Regulation empowers
the Commission to adopt those regulatory technical standards in
accordance with Regulation
(EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council
(‘the ESMA Regulation’).
In order to satisfy the latter empowerment, the
Commission adopted on 17 May 2016 a delegated regulation
containing important details on the procedures to be followed by
market participants when carrying out market soundings.
The delegated regulation may only enter into force at
the end of the scrutiny period of the Parliament and the
Council if no objection has been
expressed either by the Parliament or the Council, or if, before
the expiry of that period, both the Parliament and the Council have
informed the Commission that they will not object.
The scrutiny period provided by the ESMA Regulation is
three months from the date of notification of the regulatory
technical standard, unless the standards adopted by the Commission
are the same as the draft standards adopted by ESMA, in which case
the scrutiny period would be one month.
Some changes having been introduced into the draft
regulatory technical standards adopted by ESMA, the delegated
regulation cannot be considered to be the same as the draft
regulatory technical standard adopted by ESMA. Therefore, the
three-month period for objection applies, and will expire on 17
August 2016.
Members considered that the smooth and timely
implementation of the market abuse framework by 3 July 2016
requires that the market participants and competent authorities
make the necessary arrangements and put the appropriate systems in
place as soon as possible, and in any event by 3 July 2016, and
this should be done in accordance with the delegated regulation.
Accordingly, the delegated regulation should therefore enter
into force by 3 July 2016 at the latest, before the expiry of the
scrutiny period on 17 August 2016.
Furthermore, Members considered that the provisions of
the delegated regulation in substance are consistent with the
objectives of Parliament as expressed in the Market Abuse
Regulation, and in particular with the Parliament’s intention
to provide competent authorities with a full set of records of all
information revealed in the course of a market sounding.
Accordingly, Parliament declared that it has no
objections to the delegated regulation.