Recital 1

(1)Article 13(12) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 provides that issuers of financial instruments admitted to trading on an SME growth market may enter into a liquidity contract for their shares where such contracts comply with, inter alia, the conditions for establishing accepted market practices laid down in Article 13(2) of that Regulation. These conditions ensure that liquidity contracts set a high degree of safeguards to the operation of market forces and the proper interplay of the forces of supply and demand, have a positive impact on market liquidity and efficiency and do not create risks for the integrity of related markets. The contractual template for liquidity contracts provided therein which aims at ensuring compliance with these conditions, lays down the minimum elements that a liquidity contract should contain, including as regards transparency to the market and performance of the liquidity provisions. Parties are free to insert additional clauses to reflect the specificities of the individual case, in accordance with their freedom to contract.