EC National Ambassadors Agree on UCITS II Proposal

Washington, DC, March 2, 2001 - The European Community's Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) reached an agreement on the text of a proposal to amend the UCITS Directive to create a passport for management companies to operate throughout the European Union (UCITS II Proposal). The revised text of the UCITS II Proposal, which is not publicly available, will be forwarded to the Council of the European Union for a vote on March 12, 2001. It is expected that the Council will adopt the text without further debate and will make the official text publicly available in the next few months. The UCITS II Proposal then will be forwarded to the Parliament for a second reading in the fall of 2001.