While the final phase of negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the reform of the European financial supervision architecture (see EUROPE 11864/1) was due to take place on Tuesday, 19 March, a last-minute postponement was requested, according to several sources. Negotiations will therefore resume on Thursday, 21 March.
This postponement, recorded late Monday evening, is due in particular to the reservations raised by Germany regarding governance (see EUROPE 12213/23), according to a European source. Reservations that would have been lifted by Tuesday morning, another parliamentary source said.
For this source, the 'trilogue' was postponed mainly because there had not been enough progress on several points, making it difficult to conclude the negotiations on Tuesday.
At the last ‘trilogue’, a compromise seemed to be emerging on this issue and the European Parliament had proposed an option maintaining the status quo in terms of the composition of the independent ‘Executive board’ within the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), but increasing the powers of the president (see EUROPE 12214/23). The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU had also proposed one and submitted it to the Member States for consultation until Monday evening.
The text submitted to the Member States, of which EUROPE has had a copy, does indeed have similarities with the Parliament's option (see EUROPE 12214/23). It also takes over the composition of the current ‘Management board’ - which was to be replaced by the independent executive committee - namely a president and six members of the ’Board of Supervisors’ (BoS) and also maintains the adoption of decisions by a simple majority.
In terms of independence, the text emphasises that “the members of the Management board shall act independently and objectively in the sole interest of the Union as a whole and shall neither seek nor take instructions from the Union's institutions or bodies, from any government or from any other public or private body”.
In particular, the Management board would be responsible for proposing an annual and multiannual work programme for adoption by the BoS. It could also examine, advise and make proposals in several areas, including the prevention of the use of the financial system for money laundering and terrorist financing.
The BoS would be composed of a president, a head of the national competent authority for each Member State, a representative of the European Commission, a representative appointed by the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, a representative of the European Systemic Risk Board and a representative for each of the other two European Supervisory Authorities.
The general rule for decision-making in the BoS would be a simple majority, but some derogations have been provided for decisions on the adoption of acts or decisions to launch investigations.
In addition, it would be the BoS - and not the European Commission - that would be responsible for establishing a short list of qualified candidates for the post of president of the Authority, who chairs both the BoS and the Management board meetings.
The list of candidates would be submitted to the Parliament for approval and it would be the Council of the EU, after consultation with the BoS, which would be responsible for adopting the decision appointing the president.
The objective of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU is therefore to come on Thursday with an option for which it has a mandate. The question now is whether this option is acceptable to the Parliament. On Tuesday, however, our sources were optimistic about the possibility of an agreement. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)