Main Initiatives of the European Union in Combating Market Abuse

Abstract

In the European Union combating insider violations and market manipulation is one of the key tasks in the domain of legal regulation of the finance market. The EU takes a systems approach to the solution of this problem, as the development of the legal regulation in this field goes the way of enhancing a respective complex of legal norms. In 7 989 the first stage of the development of the EU legal base in the area of combating insider violations was undertaken. In the mentioned year a Council Directive 89/592/EEC on insider dealing was adopted which created the basis for the legal regulation in this field. The document, despite its progressive nature for that time, soon became outdated and no longer could meet the demands of modern finance markets. In 2003 the European Union decided to enhance its legal base and adopted a new Directive 2003/6/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on insider dealing and market manipulation (market abuse). This secondary law act, which is still in force, has a much wider scope because its key notion "market abuse" comprises two forms of unlawful actions: insider dealing and market manipulation. In 20 7 7 drafts of new regulatory acts were elaborated - a regulation on insider dealing and market manipulation (market abuse) and a directive on criminal sanctions for insider dealing and market abuse. Should these acts be adopted, the third stage of development of the legal base in this area will begin. This article is aimed at analysing specific features of the second-stage development of the EU legal base and attempting to characterise the main directions of the upcoming reform.