Brussels, 05/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The chair of the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, Sharon Bowles (ALDE, United Kingdom), is calling on the Council of the EU to react faster to the comments by MEPs on the European Commission's draft legislation on benchmarks.
Bowles published her report on this matter on Thursday 5 December and called for the process to be speeded up so the legislation can be brought in under the current European Parliament. The deadline for lodging amendments is 16 December and the economic and monetary affairs committee will be voting on 30 January, which means that, if the Council wants to see what the EP has done and says it isn't bad, then it will be possible to reach a conclusion rapidly. Otherwise, she said, it would be voted upon in plenary and then handed to the new European Parliament. Greece will be taking over the Presidency of the Council of the EU from Lithuania on 1 January 2014, and the question of benchmarks will be a priority for the second half of its term, when it will focus on achieving a general approach to benchmarking at the Council.
Bowles's report has pulled back slightly from the Commission's ambitions. She recommends categorising benchmarks, starting by regulating a few benchmarks and then extending the rules to other benchmarks at a later date. She recommends a cautious approach to the role of the European Financial Markets Authority, pointing out that this is a rather restricted department and that even the United States, which has a much bigger office, would collapse under the weight of everything that this authority is being called upon to regulate. (EL/transl.fl)