Dear Mr Lee,

We are writing with reference to your request of 11 November 2021 by which
you asked ESMA to provide you with “[…] documents which contain the
following information: Preparatory Documents & Documents Relating to 2021
EU - US Joint Financial Regulatory Forum, held on September 29 and
September 30 2021”.

Please find attached a PowerPoint presentation on EU markets developments
made by ESMA at the EU-US Forum that we are happy to share with you after
having applied limited redactions for reasons of personal data protection.
The presentation itself is not public but the information contained
therein can be shared as part of the Trends, Risks, Vulnerabilities (TRV)
Report No.2 2021. In relation to the other documents identified, we note
that these are of preparatory nature and are thus not meant to become
public. All the available documents and information about the content of
the discussions between the EU and US in the context of such Joint
Financial Regulatory Forums are available to the public via the various
[1]joint statements published on the website of the European Commission.
Revealing additional details about the content of the topics, or of the
order of, such regulatory dialogues taking place between the EU and US in
the context of the forum that took place on September 29 and 30, 2021,
could have a negative impact on the international relationships between
the EU and the US regarding this specific topic.

In particular, we see a reasonably foreseeable risk that disclosing the
identified documents would undermine the possibility for the participants
in the forum to freely and openly exchange views on topics of mutual
interest and of direct relevance to the public interests of financial
stability, investor protection and market integrity. Moreover, revealing
draft versions of such documents may lead to speculation about the future
positions of both the EU and the US in negotiations in the context of
international cooperation.

Therefore, we consider that the exception provided in the third indent of
letter (a) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 applies.

Kindly note that pursuant to Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
in the event of a total or partial refusal, an applicant may, within 15
working days of receiving this reply, make a confirmatory request asking
ESMA to reconsider its position.

Finally, in your request, you also mentioned that “[a]lso of relevance to
this Information Request are documents concerning National Competent
Authority comments / opinions, in an anonymised form if necessary to
ensure the broadest public access to information”. Please note that no
such documents are in the possession of ESMA.

Kind regards,

Enrico Gagliardi

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