July 25 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Thursday that it has sent a letter of formal notice to Bulgaria, urging the country to bring its legislation in line with the EU rules on criminal sanctions for market abuse.
"Under EU rules which Member States adopted in April 2014, they are required to ensure that such behaviour, including the manipulation of benchmarks, is a criminal offence, and is punishable with effective and consistent sanctions everywhere in Europe," the EU institution said in a monthly infringement decisions package.
Together with the Market Abuse Regulation, EU rules guarantee the efficiency, transparency and trustworthiness of European financial markets and contribute to the completion of the Capital Markets Union, the Commission added.
The Commission also claims that by defining the period of time during which a provision of a service will be considered as temporary, the Bulgarian legislation violates the free movement of services principle.
Bulgaria has two months to respond to the arguments raised by the Commission, or the EU institution may decide to send a reasoned opinion, which could in turn be followed by referral to court over the issue.