Press Release: Financial services: Commission appoints members of expert group on open-ended real estate funds

The European Commission has appointed the members of an expert group that will assess the EU market for open-ended, retail-orientated real estate funds, which provide investors with access to professionally managed investments in commercial and other types of property. The group will meet on several occasions until January 2008 and then produce a report on its findings, which will be discussed with regulatory bodies and other stakeholders in order to test the implications of any recommendations from a broader public interest perspective. The report and the reactions to it will provide valuable input for the Commission's forthcoming paper on non-harmonised investment funds, due summer 2008. The group was proposed by the Commission White Paper on investment funds (IP/06/1569) and the appointment of its members follows a call for interest in March 2007 (IP/07/458).