The planned behind closed-doors exchange of views between EU finance ministers on the capital markets union (CMU) on Friday 10 July finally turned into a simple presentation of the final recommendations of the High Level Forum on the CMU.
After Thomas Wieser's presentation of the final work of the Forum he chaired (see EUROPE 12503/13), no minister took the floor, according to a European source.
Only the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, intervened to detail the Commission's ambitions for the Action Plan set to be published in September (see EUROPE 12514/2).
However, a one-and-a-half hour slot had been set aside for discussion, according to the same source.
The German EU Council Presidency had even put several questions to the ministers in a note structuring the debate (see EUROPE 12523/18). In particular, it asked them about how to address the arrangements between financial institutions and payment service providers, as well as how to improve supervision in areas such as financial reporting.
The CMU will be one of the main priorities of the German Presidency, particularly with a view to overcoming the economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had assured his counterparts that very morning when presenting the priorities of the German Presidency, referring to the drafting of EU Council conclusions on this subject.
‘Wirecard’ Scandal
Asked at a press conference about the accounting scandal involving the German payment service provider Wirecard, Olaf Scholz agreed that it was necessary to get to the bottom of the matter.
“I think there may be additional competences that need to be given to the European authorities. We need to see what legislative developments will take place at European level to ensure proper supervision, not only of traditional economic operators, but also of new operators who often escape the radar of the supervisory authorities”, he said.
For its part, the Commission recalled that it had asked the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to carry out a preliminary investigation into the supervision adequacy of the German financial policeman, BaFin, in the context of this case (EUROPE 12515/13).
“We will continue to follow this case closely”, assured Valdis Dombrovskis. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)