Brussels, 16/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 January, the European Parliament approved the new regulation introducing a stricter framework for rating agencies - the third since the introduction of European supervision. Leonardo Domenici (S&D, Italy), the rapporteur on this file, explained that the new rules on sovereign debt ratings “will contribute to preventing the interference of rating agencies in the European agenda”. Indeed rating agencies have often been criticised for the catalyst role that they can play in the crisis. They will therefore now be confined in particular to three unsolicited sovereign ratings per year. European Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier stated that rating agencies should also show more transparency and will be held civilly responsible in the case of intentional error or negligence.
Several MEPs put the progress made into perspective. Wolf Klimz (ALDE, Germany) even regretted that this text does not go far enough in fighting against the grip of the Big Three (Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch) on almost the whole market. “I fear that, in the future, we will pay for this lack of competition”, he said. In the view of Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium) this “modest progress” is not able “to hide the fact that the fundamental problems (…) remain without a satisfactory response”. In other words, the almost total payment of the rating agencies by the issuing firms themselves and the systemic effects caused by the downgrade of a rating. Ashley Fox (ECR, United Kingdom) believes that the measures constitute a mix “of the unnecessary and the inadequate”.
The European Commission has promised Parliament that it will assess the possibility for a public European rating agency, by the end of 2016. “We can't continue to delegate this task to the private sector”, Catherine Trautmann (S&D, France) said (our translation throughout).
The text still has to receive the definitive green light from the Council. (EL/transl.fl)