In a position paper published on Tuesday 16 May, the association representing European employers, BusinessEurope, spoke out against making significant changes to the structure and powers of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs). This position comes on the final day of the public consultation on the effectiveness and efficiency of the ESAs, which will feed into the European Commission's reflection in its preparations for a future legislative initiative.
“The EU should carefully assess the need for new legislation, (and) focus on cumulative effects and the bedding-in of the reforms of recent years”, the document states.
BusinessEurope wishes to keep the existing supervisory structure in place, arguing that cross-border supervision would be more efficient “by safeguarding sectorial expertise and maintaining the current European financial supervisory architecture”. It also opposes making changes to the current funding model of the ESAs and recommends leaving the national supervisory authorities untouched.
This document is accompanied by a letter from the Director General of BusinessEurope to the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis. In this letter, Markus J. Beyrer says that although no major changes to the structure and powers of the ESAs are desirable, improvements “in governance are necessary to ensure that decisions can be made on the basis of evidence-based information and to effectively involve all affected stakeholders”. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)