European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator letter on continuity of contracts
The House of Commons’ Exiting the EU Select Committee released a letter dated 18 September 2018, which was sent by the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, Guy Verhofstadt MEP.
The letter is in response to a question he received whilst appearing before the Committee on 20 June 2018 and concerns the impact of Brexit on existing contracts.
Key points covered in his letter:
- To ensuring the continuity of contracts concluded before Brexit – such as insurance and OTC derivatives contracts – the assessment made by the EU so far indicates that issues are expected to be linked to a far more limited set of contracts than initially feared by some.
- In the case of uncleared OTC derivatives, many of these contracts expire before March 30, 2019. Additionally, derivative contracts concluded between UK and EU market participants should in principle remain valid. As analysis from market participants has shown, under the applicable national third country provisions of different Member States the performance of existing obligations under the contract could continue. This would mean that there is no issue of contract continuity, even in case of a no-deal scenario;
- Though, the performance of certain life-cycle events such as roll-over, novation and portfolio compression, imply, as a rule, the creation of new rights and obligations, for which an authorisation under EU or national law may be required. The use of the term “life-cycle events” hides that in many cases these events lead to the creation of new rights and obligations, to new contracts.
Further information:
To read more, please follow this link:
https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/Exiting-the-European-Union/17-19/Correspondence/Letter-from-Guy-Verhofstadt-MEP-to-Seema-Malhotra-MP-27-September-2018.pdf
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Please Note: This publication is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all developments in the law and practice, or to cover all aspects of those referred to. Readers should take legal advice before applying the information contained in this publication to specific issues or transactions.
EP Brexit co-ordinator letter on continuity of contracts
