At its plenary session on Thursday 8 October, MEPs adopted by 417 votes in favour, 205 against and 72 abstentions the own-initiative report on the future of the Capital Markets Union (CMU), drawn up by Spain’s Isabel Benjumea (EPP).
The final text adopted in plenary takes note of the Commission’s action plan (see EUROPE 12562/9), which was adopted after the text was adopted in the European Parliament Economic Affairs Committee (see EUROPE 12558/4). In particular, it calls for a stronger commitment from the Commission to make real progress on issues such as supervision, taxation and insolvency laws, which still represent major obstacles to the genuine integration of EU capital markets.
During the debate preceding the vote, the rapporteur regretted that the Commission’s action plan did not set a clear timetable or take a position on the issues on which there was no consensus.
"Clearly, the Commission’s action plan published at the end of September is not up to the task, in particular to protect our savers and to respond to the Wirecard scandal," said Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, France).
In particular, an amendment tabled by the rapporteur was adopted to encourage the Union’s financial sector to prepare for the many technical challenges associated with the transfer of trade from London to the EU as a result of Brexit.
MEPs also decided, by a large majority, to remove from the text the provision stressing the importance of carefully assessing the impact of any financial transaction tax (FTT) on the EU’s aims to develop strong and attractive capital markets.
During the debate, the Greens/EFA Group indicated its intention to vote against the report due to certain wording that encouraged financial deregulation too much to its liking. The same applies to the GUE/NGL Group, which believes that the report mainly serves the interests of the financial industry.
See adopted text: https://bit.ly/2I9FgWq (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)