The European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) voted massively in favour, in three separate votes, of the Listing Act for which MEP Alfred Sant is rapporteur.

Listing is the process by which companies issue shares for sale to the public on stock exchanges and then oversee the trading that takes place in their shares on the market.

Following the vote, Sant noted that the Listing Act is a programme designed to make it more attractive and less burdensome for European SMEs and other companies to raise investment funds by issuing shares.

“It does this in particular by reducing the complications associated with listing, by facilitating compliance with regulatory requirements and by authorising the issue of Multiple-Vote Share Structures”.

MEPs on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee adopted changes to the European Union legislation that would enable companies to access funding sources other than bank lending and to adapt their financing structure when they grow in size.

The provisional political agreements on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and on the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) texts were also approved.

These texts will establish rules for the European Union’s markets in financial instruments.

Sant claimed that the main challenge was to implement these changes to the European legislation without abating investor protection.

“I think we have met this challenge quite well," he said.

Amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation and the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) are included in the Act, as well as a recast of the Prospectus Regulation and the establishment of a new Multi-Voting Share Structure directive.

Sant stressed that “the Listing Act is a necessary but not sufficient reform on the way to getting the Capital Markets Union done, a process that has been dragging”.

The text amending the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive was adopted unanimously with 53 votes.

The text amending the Prospectus Regulation, the Regulation on Market Abuse and the Regulation on Markets in Financial Instruments was adopted with 52 votes for and 1 abstention.

The text on multiple-vote share structures was adopted with 43 votes for and 10 abstentions.

ECON also agreed unanimously to proceed with trialogue negotiations with the Council of Ministers on the Listing Act without it being necessary to first carry out a vote in the European Parliament’s plenary, which will endorse the procedure on November 9.

The aim is to get full approval of the Listing Act before the end of the current mandate of the European Parliament.