The rapporteurs in the European Parliament, Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) and Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria), sent a letter to the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU on Tuesday 15 January, asking it to reach as soon as possible a general approach on the reform of the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESA, see EUROPE 11864).
“Given that the end of the current 8th legislature is near [...] we urge you to adopt as soon as possible the position of the Council on the whole legislative package to allow the start of the interinstitutional negotiations,” they write.
The two MEPs are opposed to entering into negotiations with the Council only on the part relating to the European Banking Authority’s new powers to combat money laundering, for which the Council adopted a partial general approach at the end of December (see EUROPE 12164).
However, this is precisely the direction in which the Council wishes to go. In a working group on financial services on 11 January, the Romanian Presidency reportedly received broad support from delegations to separate the money laundering aspect from the rest of the reform, for which the Member States are not yet ready to negotiate with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12170).
On Wednesday 16 January, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) decided to put the subject on the agenda of the Ecofin Council on 22 January in order to obtain political agreement to proceed in this way. This agreement should then be formalised by effectively separating the texts and re-approved by Coreper.
This decision stems from “the urgency of the AML/CFT topic, as well as from the Presidency’s intention to concentrate its efforts and resources on files where negotiations have realistic chances of being concluded within the current legislature,” Bucharest justifies in a note dated 14 January.
The ball is now in Parliament’s court, which will have to decide, before the vote on the reports by Mrs Berès and Mr Karas (see EUROPE 12169) in plenary session, whether or not it wishes to launch the ‘trilogues’ only on this part. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)