On 16 June 2023, the European Commission (the Commission) published a letter from John Berrigan, Deputy Director-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, addressed to Verena Ross, ESMA Chair, formally requesting technical advice on the review of Commission Directive 2007/16/EC on UCITS eligible assets (commonly known as the Eligible Assets Directive).

The letter sets forth that, the Commission mandates ESMA to carry out an assessment of the implementation of the Eligible Assets Directive in the Member States, to analyse whether any divergences have arisen in this area and to provide the Commission with a set of recommendations on how the Eligible Assets Directive should be revised to keep it in line with market developments.

In particular, ESMA should analyse the merits of linking certain definitions and concepts to other pieces of the EU acquis, given the need to provide greater clarity, legal certainty and uniformity to UCITS management companies and additional protections to UCITS investors.

The letter requests that ESMA deliver its technical advice to the Commission by 31 October 2024.