This week the EU Council and Parliament announced that they had reached a provisional political agreement on REMIT 2 (click here) achieving a key milestone in the trilogue process. The main themes to emerge from this round of revisions include:
- Confirmation of the contentious Article 9 provision that requires third country market participants to designate a representative in the EU Member State in which they are actively trading. Such market participants will be obliged to ensure that their representative has the necessary powers and means to ensure efficient and timely compliance with national regulatory authorities and/or ACER;
- ACER has the right to investigate cases with a cross-border dimension where the potential manipulative behaviour affects at least two Member States. National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) will have the right to object to ACER’s involvement including up to three months into an investigation;
- ACER will be empowered to conduct on-site inspections, take statements and issue requests for information;
- ACER will have specific investigatory and sanctioning powers against market participants for instances of non-compliance throughout the investigatory phase for market abuse cases for example, to ensure compliance with on-site inspection decisions and requests for information.
The provisional agreement on REMIT 2 must now be formally adopted by both the EU Parliament and Council. RegTrail will provide a more detailed analysis of the final Level 1 text once formally adopted. Much of the important detail however will follow in the form of the delegated acts and implementing regulations which won’t come before the new year.