Council of the EU adopts the ELTIF Regulation

The Council of the EU has today adopted the text of a Regulation on European Long-Term Investment Funds (the Regulation).

The Regulation has now cleared the final hurdle in the legislative process - the text was agreed between the Council and the European Parliament (EP) in November 2014 and formally adopted by the EP at its plenary session on 10 March 2015.

The Regulation is intended to increase the pool of capital available for long-term investment in the EU economy by creating a new form of fund vehicle, the ELTIF. For a fuller summary of the Regulation, please see our article.

The Regulation will now be translated into the official languages of the EU and published in the Official Journal, formally ‘entering into force’ 20 days after publication.

However, the Regulation will not apply for a further six months after that date.

As a Regulation, its provisions will have directly applicability across the EU – there will be no need for member states to transpose the Regulation into national law.

A number of matters remain to be clarified by the Commission as Level 2 measures - it is intended that these will be adopted within three months of the Regulation entering into force, so all Level 2 measures should be finalised ahead of the Regulation’s application.