Brussels, 29/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 29 June, the European Commission submitted a new compromise proposal on the legislative package revising the European system of financial supervision in order to bring the European Parliament and Council positions more into line (see EUROPE 10168). “We are really close to an agreement, much closer than we have been up until now. There are still a few points for discussion, for example, on the role and exact powers of the new European authorities,” Chantal Hughes, spokeswoman for the European internal market commissioner told EUROPE on Tuesday 29 June.
The new proposal contains the following points: - only credit rating agencies will come under the direct supervision of the new European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA). A review clause provides for any subsequent decision on supervision of other potentially involved financial entities directly linked to market infrastructure, for example, derivatives central counterparties, being taken by qualified majority voting in the Council; - only the Council, via qualified majority voting, will be able to declare and stop emergency situations; - in emergency situations, the power of the new European financial supervision authorities (ESAs) to intervene directly in the banking, insurance and securities markets will be retained but qualified, the exact scope of the measure having to be decided at a later date by the co-decision procedure. This would give the three ESAs a directly binding decision-making power on cross-border institutions when there is a clear breach of European financial legislation or if agreements authorising such an intervention have been previously signed. An inter-institutional trialogue meeting has been scheduled for Thursday 1 July. (M.B./transl.rt)