The European Parliament meeting in plenary session on Wednesday 10 February narrowly adopted (339 votes in favour, 294 against and 57 abstentions) the interinstitutional agreement on the adjustments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) proposed by the Commission to promote post-Covid-19 economic recovery (see EUROPE 12535/11).
In the debate preceding the vote, rapporteur Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany) criticised the attitude of the S&D, Greens/EFA and The Left groups, which had already announced their intention to vote against the agreement. “Anyone who wants to support economic growth cannot vote against this stimulus package”, he said at the time.
For their part, the three political groups consider that these “quick fixes” use the Covid-19 crisis as an excuse to deregulate the financial markets, particularly with regard to the amendments on position limits (see EUROPE 12608/9).
“The fingerprints of the EPP are all over this proposal to relax stricter rules put in place as lessons learnt after the last financial crisis”, said the S&D group in a statement issued before the vote.
During the debate, the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness refuted these accusations and assured that there was a clear link between these amendments on position limits and the pandemic. “It is essential to protect the revenues of our energy suppliers, especially when demand is so volatile due to the Covid-19 crisis”, she said.
EU Recovery prospectus. With much less difficulty, the MEPs also approved, on the same day—by 585 votes in favour, 50 against and 55 abstentions—the interinstitutional agreement on the Commission’s proposal to create an abbreviated “EU Recovery prospectus”, so that companies can quickly raise the capital needed to rebuild their business in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12608/9).
See the adopted texts on the amendments to the MiFID II: https://bit.ly/2ZkrXI9 and the EU Recovery prospectus: https://bit.ly/3aTzsLs (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)