WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE DIRECTIVE?
It aims to coordinate the rules with regard to:
- admitting securities to official stock-exchange listing and
- the information to be published on those securities in order to provide equivalent protection for investors at EU level.
KEY POINTS
In line with the objectives pursued by the Financial Services Action Plan, Directive 2001/34/EC (known as the Listing Directive) consolidates the existing measures concerning the conditions for admission of securities to official stock-exchange listing and the financial information that listed companies must make available to investors. The existing measures (repealed by the Listing Directive) are:
- Council Directive 79/279/EEC coordinating the conditions for the admission of securities to official stock-exchange listing;
- Council Directive 80/390/EEC coordinating the requirements for the drawing up, scrutiny and distribution of the listing particulars to be published for the admission of securities to official stock-exchange listing;
- Council Directive 82/121/EEC on information to be published on a regular basis by companies the shares of which have been admitted to official stock-exchange listing;
- Council Directive 88/627/EEC on the information to be published when a major holding in a listed company is acquired or disposed of.
Directives 2003/71/EC (the Prospectus Directive) and 2004/109/EC (the Transparency Directive) further consolidated rules harmonising the conditions for the provision of information regarding requests for the admission of securities to official stock-exchange listing and the information on securities admitted to trading.
The Prospectus and Transparency Directives amended the Listing Directive removing overlapping requirements. As a consequence, Articles 3, 4, 20 to 41, 65 to 104 and 108 of the Listing Directive were deleted.
In addition, Directive 2004/39/EC (the original Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MiFID) replaced the notion of ‘admission to the official listing’ with ‘admission to trading on a regulated market’.
The Listing Directive concerns securities for which admission to official listing is requested and those admitted, irrespective of the legal nature of their issuer. However, certain exemptions are possible in the case of securities issued by an EU country or its regional or local authorities, or units issued by collective investment undertakings other than the closed-end type.
The Listing Directive is a minimum harmonisation directive. It allows EU countries to put in place additional requirements for admission of securities to official listing, provided that:
- such additional conditions apply to all issuers and
- they have been published before the application for admission of such securities.
FROM WHEN DOES THE DIRECTIVE APPLY?
It has applied since 26 July 2001.
MAIN DOCUMENT
Directive 2001/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 May 2001 on the admission of securities to official stock exchange listing and on information to be published on those securities (OJ L 184, 6.7.2001, pp. 1-66)
Successive amendments to Directive 2001/34/EC have been incorporated into the original document. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC (OJ L 168, 30.6.2017, pp. 12-82)
Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, pp. 349-496)
See consolidated version.
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, pp. 1-61)
See consolidated version.
Directive 2005/1/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2005 amending Council Directives 73/239/EEC, 85/611/EEC, 91/675/EEC, 92/49/EEC and 93/6/EEC and Directives 94/19/EC, 98/78/EC, 2000/12/EC, 2001/34/EC, 2002/83/EC and 2002/87/EC in order to establish a new organisational structure for financial services committees (OJ L 79, 24.3.2005, pp. 9-17)
Directive 2004/109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2004 on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market and amending Directive 2001/34/EC (OJ L 390, 31.12.2004, pp. 38-57)
See consolidated version.
Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading and amending Directive 2001/34/EC (OJ L 345, 31.12.2003, pp. 64-89)
See consolidated version.
Communication from the Commission — Implementing the framework for financial markets: action plan (COM(99) 232 final, 11.5.1999)
