On Tuesday 19 June, the committee on economic and monetary affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament did not put the draft own-initiative report by Brian Hayes (EPP, Ireland) concerning relations between the European Union and third countries over the regulation and supervision of financial services to a vote (see EUROPE 12008).
According to our information, the shadow rapporteurs did not succeed last week in agreeing on a range of different questions.
The first point of disagreement concerns the in-depth scrutiny for Parliament proposed by the rapporteur (see EUROPE 12030). The S&D and ECR groups reject the idea that the Commission make equivalency decisions through delegated acts rather than implementing acts, whilst the EPP, ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups support this proposal, as they consider that the political nature of these decisions justifies Parliament's involvement.
Another stumbling block is the inclusion of the chapter on financial services in trade agreements with third countries, on which the political groups are still trying to find the “right balance”.
Readers may recall that the rapporteur hopes to build a “strong majority” on this text, in order to have a consistent Parliament position on the future face of EU equivalency decisions.
The ECON committee vote is postponed until 11 July, whilst the date of the plenary session vote remains unchanged and will take place in September. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)