Recital 1

(1)Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 has been amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/2099 of the European Parliament and of the Council ² . Those amendments have introduced into Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, inter alia, an empowerment for the Commission to specify further the rules of procedure for the exercise by the European Securities and Markets Authority (‘ESMA’) of the power to impose fines or periodic penalty payments on third-country central counterparties (‘third-country CCPs’) and related third parties to whom third-country CCPs have outsourced operational functions or activities (‘related third parties’). In particular, those rules of procedures should include provisions on the rights of the defence, temporal provisions, and the collection of fines or periodic penalty payments and the limitation periods for the imposition and enforcement of penalties.