EcoSoC Opinion on Market Abuse

17 January 2002

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The Economic and Social Committee claims that the Directive itself fails to meet one of the most important elements of the Lamfalussy Recommendations. This is that consultation with market practitioners and other interested parties should be open and continuous throughout the legislative process. While it is true that market practitioners provided comments and expressed concerns – including questions about the precise meaning and interpretation of certain provisions which were contained in the proposals of the Federation of European Securities Commissioners (FESCO) – those comments did not receive any reasoned response. So the Proposal does not in fact conform to the Lamfalussy Recommendations. It is essential that the Lamfalussy principles are adhered to henceforth.

A principal objective of the Proposal is to reduce the complexity and variety of different national approaches to market manipulation but in a number of respects the text needs to be clarified with regard to:

the precise definition of insider dealing;

the application of the proposed regime to market manipulation;

the precise requirements concerning disclosure;

the potential for confusion as to which national authority has responsibility;

how common standards crucial to the aims of the Directive will be achieved, this should be a major task for the article 17 (2) regulatory process.

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