The Council adopted on 21 February 2012 a regulation on short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps which introduces common EU transparency requirements and harmonises the powers that regulators may use in exceptional situations where there is a serious threat to financial stability. Adoption of the regulation follows agreement reached with the European Parliament in first reading on 18 October 2011, and subsequent approval by the Permanent Representatives Committee on 10 November 2011. At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, several member states adopted emergency measures to restrict or ban short selling in some or all securities in order to counter a downward spiral in the prices of shares that could create systemic risks.
As the EU lacks a...
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