A key development on the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive in the last fortnight has been the first debate on amendments by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on 23 February. Although comments during the debate by the rapporteur on the Directive, Jean-Paul Gauzès MEP, demonstrated a willingness to consider a more flexible approach in certain areas, the UK's major concerns remain unresolved. There are clearly also highly divergent views across the Parliament on the Directive and within individual political groupings. The Committee will hold a further debate on 17 March.
More worryingly, there is now clearly some political momentum, driven by the Spanish Presidency, to secure agreement to a text of the Directive at the meeting of EU finance ministers (Ecofin) on 16 March. We are arguing strongly with the UK government that it should not give way on those aspects of the Directive, in particular the third country provisions, which could have serious consequences for the UK industry simply to enable early agreement to be reached. If there was ministerial agreement in March, negotiations would then have to take place with the Parliament to secure agreement on a reconciled compromise text. We believe that it would be far better for the Parliament to reach its view first and for the Council of Ministers to consider the Directive in the light of that. This would delay a ministerial decision until the June meeting of Ecofin at the earliest. The timing of the UK general election is also potentially unhelpful in terms of the government's ability to influence effectively decisions on the Directive. Lord Myners, the Treasury Minister responsible for the Directive, will be addressing BVCA members and others on 10 March about the government's current approach t the negotiations.
