Last November, the European Commission issued a report outlining possible changes to EMIR following the EMIR review a year earlier (see here). During the previous summer, ESMA issued their response (see here) which included a recommendation to remove the “hedge exemption” which is used as part of the EMIR clearing threshold calculation, accompanied by an increase in the threshold level. If enacted, such a change  would be likely move more energy and commodity traders to “NFC+” status under EMIR, which brings into scope mandatory clearing, the uncleared margin rules, more onerous reporting requirements and also tougher  risk management rules.

According to this article by Anna Carrier of Norton Rose Fulbright, the Commission have delayed publication of the resulting legislative proposal from March to June. The article indicates that the relevant parties are split over whether and how to modify EMIR in relation to the clearing threshold, the coverage of NFCs in general and other matters.