10/01/2019 (Agence Europe) – MEPs of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) unanimously approved on Thursday 10 January the inter-institutional agreement reached between representatives of the European Parliament and the EU Council in December on the proposal to harmonise the costs of cross-border payments in euros across the EU (see EUROPE 11991). As a reminder, the final text does not include the extension of the Regulation to the harmonization of the costs of cross-border payments in currencies other than the euro, as requested by Parliament (see EUROPE 12085), but asks the European Commission to review, three years after the entry into force of the Regulation, the desirability of such an extension (see EUROPE 12159). The EU Council also endorsed the agreement on 19 December last (see EUROPE 12163). The provisions of the Regulation on cost harmonization will start to apply from 15 December 2019, while those on currency conversion will apply later. (MF)