The European Parliament's Committee on Economic Affairs postponed the vote on Monday, 1 April on the proposal for a directive to stimulate the creation of secondary markets for non-performing loans (NPLs).
The postponement of this vote, which could now take place on Monday 8 or Thursday 11 April, makes it difficult to reach an interinstitutional agreement before the end of the Parliament's term in mid-April.
However, an agreement is still possible if MEPs adopt a negotiating position close to that agreed upon by the Member States at the end of March (see EUROPE 12223/20).
"It depends on the European Parliament", argued the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
On Monday, a debate was scheduled ahead of the parliamentary vote on the some 20 compromise amendments. But this debate transformed into an informal meeting between the two co-rapporteurs, Esther de Lange (EPP, The Netherlands) and Roberto Gualtieri (S&D, Italy), and the MEPs responsible for negotiating the text on behalf of the other political groups.
In the Greens/EFA Group, we were surprised by the decision of the two rapporteurs to postpone the vote in order to continue discussions when there was a large majority on the legislative text between the EPP, S&D, ALDE and ECR groups. There is also criticism for the lack of preparatory discussions in this case, the process occurring in a mainly "bilateral" manner between Ms de Lange and Mr Gualtieri.
The Greens/EFA are the only group who called for robust measures that would allow a borrower to repay his loan again so that it would no longer be considered non-performing ('forbearance').
Among the compromise amendments negotiated between political groups are specific provisions (new Article 8a) on borrowers’ protection, which do not go as far as the Greens/EFA Group would like, but which the Council does not foresee.
Under this new article, Member States must requirecredit servicers to act "in good faith, fairly and professionally" in their dealings with debtors. And credit managers will have to comply with a list of requirements including: - a prohibition on providing "misleading, unclear or false information"; - a requirement to not communicate with persons other than the borrower, including their family or employers; - the setting of fees not exceeding the costs directly related to the management of the loan.
See: http://bit.ly/2YBEepX (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)