The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is preparing its written questions for the European Commissioner-designate for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, ahead of her hearing (see EUROPE 12561/10).
According to our sources, a draft text drawn up by the secretariat of the ECON Committee was sent on Thursday 17 September to Members, who have until noon on Monday 21 September to submit their comments.
In addition, the date for her committee hearing is reportedly no longer 12 October, but 2 October, with a view to a vote the following week in plenary session.
The draft text, as seen by EUROPE, contains five main headings, the first of which deals unsurprisingly with the economic crisis caused by Covid-19. The candidate will be asked about her assessment of the threat to financial stability posed by the crisis and her views on the measures taken or proposed so far to support the economic recovery.
The Commissioner-designate will also be invited to give her views on the creation of a single European regulator for capital markets and on a future revision of EU anti-money laundering legislation.
In the ‘Banking Union’ section, the draft text also asks Ms McGuinness whether she intends to respect the commitment made by her predecessor to “carrying through the final Basel III reforms faithfully”.
She will likely also be asked about the protection of consumers from the use of new technologies in the financial sector and on ways to encourage long-term investment and to channel capital towards sustainable investments.
Finally, the draft text does not fail to mention Brexit. “Have the risks to financial stability from Brexit increased in recent weeks? Is the EU financial system sufficiently robust to cope with a ‘no deal’?”, it asks.
The final adoption of the written questions will take place once it has been formally confirmed that the ECON Committee is competent to hear Ms McGuinness. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)