(i)

7 %;

(ii)

a level higher than 7 %, where determined by the institution and specified in the provisions governing the instrument;

(i)

the instruments are issued for the sole purpose of being awarded as variable remuneration and the provisions governing the instrument ensure that any distributions are paid at a rate which is consistent with market rates for similar instruments issued by the institution or by institutions of comparable nature, scale, complexity and credit quality and which in any case is, at the time the remuneration is awarded, no higher than 8 percentage points above the annual average rate of change for the Union published by the Commission (Eurostat) in its Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices published pursuant to Article 11 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 (5). Where the instruments are awarded to staff members who perform the predominant part of their professional activities outside the Union and the instruments are denominated in a currency issued by a third country, institutions may use a similar independently-calculated index of consumer prices produced in respect of that third country;

(ii)

at the time of the award of the instruments as variable remuneration, at least 60 % of the instruments in issuance were issued other than as an award of variable remuneration and are not held by the following or by any undertaking that has close links with the following: