The European Commission has issued its legal assessment of the Hague Securities Convention, an international treaty providing a uniform legal formula for determining the ownership of securities held in electronic form. This is in response to a request from the EU's Council of Ministers for clarification of four specific legal issues (see below for details). The assessment finds that three of the issues pose no major difficulty, while on the fourth issue it cautions that the use of more than one Convention law within securities settlement systems would endanger financial stability. The Commission therefore recommends that the European Community and Member States now sign the Convention, and that the Settlement Finality Directive be amended so that securities settlement systems are governed by one Convention law only.