23/06/2010 Author: Tony Griffiths

Gauzès under pressure to soften AIFM stance

Jean-Paul Gauzès, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive’s EU parliamentary representative, is coming under increasing pressure to dilute his hard-line stance on marketing rules for non-EU hedge funds as part of the document’s final draft, HFMWeek can reveal.  

As reported last week, the EU Council of member states and Gauzès, the Directive rapporteur in parliament, remain at loggerheads over their relative positions on third-country marketing – Gauzès proposing a potential ban on certain non-EU jurisdictions, Council backing national discretion.

However, high-level sources from within the EU have suggested that while Council has put forward a compromise deal that would allow national private placement and the Gauzès-backed marketing passport to co-exist, Gauzès remains reluctant to give ground, even as an increasing number of parliament’s MEPs signal their preference for a deal.

“The Council is giving something and Gauzès is giving absolutely nothing,” a Brussels source told HFMWeek. “He is starting to feel the pressure and is looking more and more isolated. If he wants to get a first reading he’s going to have to say yes or no to this deal. He can’t really say no to it – if he does then everything falls apart, unless the Council falls apart, but the Council seems united on this.”

“National governments have taken a large step in the direction of compromise by agreeing to reconsider the concept of an EU passport which was very unpopular with many of them,” said Syed Kamall, MEP and shadow rapporteur. “I would hope that the Parliament could meet them halfway.”

Discussions over the Directive have now reached the trialogues phase, a final three-way negotiation between Parliament, the Council and the EU Commission (who published the original version of the text in April 2009), during which the final version of the document must be hammered out.  

The first trialogue session was held on 21 May, with meetings scheduled weekly until 12 July. A vote on the final version of the Directive is scheduled for early July, but, with negotiations gridlocked, could be postponed to one of the two plenary sessions in September.