[author: Bethan Saunders]

On May 18, 2016, the Permanent Representatives Committee approved, on behalf of the Council of the EU, an agreement with the European Parliament for a one-year delay to the dates of transposition and application of the MIFID II Directive (2014/65/EU) and the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (Regulation 600/2014) (“MIFIR”). This was announced in a press release of the Council of Europe.

Under the new approach the deadline for member states to transpose MIFID II into national legislation will be July 3, 2017, and the date of application of both MIFID II and MIFIR will be January 3, 2018.