THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU [OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 349.], and in particular Article 48(12)(e) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) It is necessary to clarify which regulated markets should be considered material in terms of liquidity for each type of financial instrument so that those markets have in place appropriate systems and procedures for notifying competent authorities of temporary halts in trading.

(2) Directive 2014/65/EU extends the requirements relating to trading halts to multilateral trading facilities and organised trading facilities and it is therefore important to ensure that financial instruments traded on those venues are also within the scope of these regulatory technical standards.

(3) It is important to ensure a proportionate application of the notification requirement. After being notified of a temporary halt in trading, the competent authority is obliged to assess whether that notification is to be disseminated to the rest of the market and to coordinate, where necessary, a market-wide response. In order to limit the administrative burden for trading venues, only the trading venues with the greatest potential for market wide impact when trading is halted should be subject to the notification obligation.