The objective of Directive 85/611/EEC, adopted in 1985, was to allow for open-ended funds investing in transferable securities to be subject to the same regulation in every Member State.
It was hoped that once such legislative uniformity was established throughout Europe, funds authorised in one Member State could be sold to the public in each Member State without further authorisation, thereby furthering the EU's goal of a single market for financial services in Europe.
[3] These discussions, although leading to a draft UCITS II directive, were subsequently abandoned as being too ambitious when the Council of Ministers could not reach a common position.
Directive 2001/107/EC[4] seeks to give management companies a "European passport" to operate throughout the EU, and widens the activities which they are allowed to undertake.
The aim is that with a larger market the economies of scale will reduce costs for investment managers which can be passed on to consumers.
This updated the UCITS III Directives by introducing the following changes: On 23 July 2014 the European Union adopted Directive 2014/91/EU ("UCITS V")[8] on the co-ordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities as regards depositary functions, remuneration policies and sanctions.