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By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London:

Martin Cornish and Edward Black, lawyers at the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman Cornish, shed some light on the seemingly paradoxical proposed European Union (EU)'s Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers for their audience in a seminar in London yesterday.

The Directive's first draft, which was announced on 29th April, aims to provide a "harmonised comprehensive and effective" regulatory and supervisory framework. It will have to be approved by the European Parliament and the European Council - later this year - to be implemented, which will take two full years.

Political response It is thought to be a political response to the credit crisis heavily influenced by the EU's socialist group. "But it is not so left-field as you might think," Cornish pointed out. The EU is here trying to plug in one of the regulatory gaps in the alternative investment area, and force offshore businesses to fall in line with the onshore world.

The Directive may eventually be watered down or beefed up, according to the consultation period. But the likes of Danish ex-prime minister, Rasmussen, who has been lobbying for laws more stringent than those proposed in the Directive, France's Finance minis......................

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