1.Member States shall inform the Commission and ESMA of any general difficulties which their investment firms encounter in establishing themselves or providing investment services and/or performing investment activities in any third country.
2.Whenever it appears to the Commission, on the basis of information submitted to it under paragraph 1, that a third country does not grant Union investment firms effective market access comparable to that granted by the Union to investment firms from that third country, the Commission, taking into account guidance issued by ESMA, shall submit proposals to the Council for an appropriate mandate for negotiation with a view to obtaining comparable competitive opportunities for Union investment firms. The Council shall act by qualified majority.
The European Parliament shall be immediately and fully informed at all stages of the procedure in accordance with Article 217 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
ESMA shall assist the Commission for the purposes of this Article.
3.Whenever it appears to the Commission, on the basis of information submitted to it under paragraph 1, that Community investment firms in a third country are not granted national treatment affording the same competitive opportunities as are available to domestic investment firms and that the conditions of effective market access are not fulfilled, the Commission may initiate negotiations in order to remedy the situation.
In the circumstances referred to in the first subparagraph, the Commission may decide, in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 64(3), at any time and in addition to the initiation of negotiations, that the competent authorities of the Member States must limit or suspend their decisions regarding requests pending or future requests for authorisation and the acquisition of holdings by direct or indirect parent undertakings governed by the law of the third country in question. Such limitations or suspensions may not be applied to the setting-up of subsidiaries by investment firms duly authorised in the Community or by their subsidiaries, or to the acquisition of holdings in Community investment firms by such firms or subsidiaries. The duration of such measures may not exceed three months.
Before the end of the three-month period referred to in the second subparagraph and in the light of the results of the negotiations, the Commission may decide, in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 64(3), to extend these measures.
4.Whenever it appears to the Commission that one of the situations referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 obtains, the Member States shall inform it at its request:
of any application for the authorisation of any firm which is the direct or indirect subsidiary of a parent undertaking governed by the law of the third country in question;
whenever they are informed in accordance with Article 10(3) that such a parent undertaking proposes to acquire a holding in a Community investment firm, in consequence of which the latter would become its subsidiary.
That obligation to provide information shall lapse whenever agreement is reached with the third country concerned or when the measures referred to in the second and third subparagraphs of paragraph 3 cease to apply.
5.Measures taken under this Article shall comply with the Community's obligations under any international agreements, bilateral or multilateral, governing the taking-up or pursuit of the business of investment firms.