UNQUOTE

EUROPE - Stronger cooperation among European associations

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Europe's private equity trade bodies have vowed to work closely together to drive improvements to the proposed Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive launched by the European Commission in April this year.

At a press briefing hosted by Grant Thornton in London today the heads of AFIC (France), AIFI (Italy), ASCRI (Spain), BVK (Germany) and the BVCA were expectedly critical of the directive, with BVCA chief executive Simon Walker calling it an "overtly restrictive, damaging regulation based on a shoddy methodology".

The outcome of the European parliamentary elections last weekend was also noted, although emphasis was placed on the election being over and therefore parliamentarians being more approachable for lobbying than on the disappointing results of the socialist bloc. However, the results were seen as beneficial to the industry, which is unsurprisingly given the fact that socialist party leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has been the driving force of the proposals.

With the procedure to pass the European directive expected to take up to two years, the trade body representatives are confident that they will be able to push through important changes that will enable private equity and venture investors to continue to make a viable contribution to the regional economies.

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