Brussels, 10/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The team at the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee (ECON) responsible for negotiating a compromise on the draft regulation introducing structural reforms for the banking sector is being kept unchanged.
This decision was initially taken in June, and then maintained after talks this week between the political groups' coordinators for the ECON committee on the fringes of the EP's plenary session.
Following the failure at the end of May of the vote to amend the draft legislation (see EUROPE 11322), the negotiating team headed by Gunnar Hökmark (EPP, Sweden) will therefore examine compromise amendments concerning the legislation's scope of application, the tricky question of the separation of investment and retail banking (whether such decisions should be made automatically) and proprietary trading. It seems unlikely, however, that these compromise amendments will be ready for Wednesday 15 July, the date of the last meeting of the economic and monetary affairs committee before the summer break. The MEPs, who according to an EP source feel that the member states' negotiating position is “too weak” (see EUROPE 11339), will therefore decide on their stance for the reforms in September so that talks can begin with the Council of Ministers. (Mathieu Bion)