European Union law

An area in which we place particular importance is that of European Union (EU) law.

We have advised clients, including the government or other public sector bodies, on the transposition of EU law into national legislation, propositions for amendments to national legislation and have generally considered issues of EU law in other fields as they may have arisen.

In particular, our firm was mandated to draft the domestic legislation transposing Directive 2004/39/EC on Markets in Financial Instruments (MIFiD) and related implementing directives into Cyprus law.

Also following the change of the legal and regulatory framework in the field of electronic communications and postal regulation in the context of the harmonisation process, our partner Georghios Colocassides served on the advisory committee to the Commissioner of Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation; advising and giving opinions to the Commissioner in the field of electronic communications and postal regulation as well as EU law.

During the term of his office he was often called to advise on matters of application and interpretation of relevant European legal instruments in this area as well as on matters relevant to transposition of such instruments.

Georghios Colocassides was selected to be a member of the Legal Certainty Group, a group composed of legal experts from all EU member states, to advise the European Commission on the integration of EU securities clearing and settlement systems and on solutions to legal barriers related to post-trading within the EU.

Amongst others the group examined the linkage between the absence an EU-wide framework regarding the treatment of book-entry securities and the EU legislative measures existing at that time.