MEPs in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on Thursday 1 December discussed amendments to the ‘Silva Pereira’ draft report on the European Single Access Point (ESAP), which is intended to make information on EU companies and financial products easily accessible (see EUROPE 13050/22). While the concept of the access point itself is agreed upon in the European Parliament, its form is subject to debate.
As part of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) package, the ESAP proposal consists of a main proposal and two amending proposals on EU law. In addition to the 168 amendments to the draft report by Pedro Silva Pereira (S&D, Portuguese), a further 311 amendments were submitted by the political groups, mainly on the scope, access to the access point, and type of information accessible.
MEPs are also disagreeing on the tasks of data collection bodies and the application of fees for researchers and functionalities.
“These 311 amendments will allow us to draw up a more comprehensive and politically balanced report”, argued Mr Silva Pereira.
While The Left and Greens/EFA groups want to include more legal acts, the other political groups want to exclude more of them, he noted. The ESAP access point aims to bring together data on financial services, capital markets and sustainability. Dimitrios Papadimoulis (The Left, Greek) would like to strengthen the EU’s Green Deal and sustainable development indicators.
He was also of the opinion that the organisations who provide the information should be responsible for the reliability and authenticity of the data. This is, in his opinion, is “indispensable”. By way of contrast, Frances Fitzgerald (EPP, Irish), who was represented by her German colleague Markus Ferber, argued for tolerances of error.
Similarly, Mr Papadimoulis stressed the importance of paying attention to the issue of costs and that “market participants, who frequently search and/or download big volumes of information, pay”. Ms Fitzgerald, on the other hand, would not like to “penalise” them.
Finally, in order to ensure that the tool works well from the start, Mr Papadimoulis suggested a pilot project involving an advisory group of experts. He called for a rapid implementation and an early agreement under the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2023.
For Ms Fitzgerald, on the contrary, “there is no need to rush”.
Mr Silva Pereira explained that the first technical meeting would take place next week. He was in no doubt that an agreement could be reached in the European Parliament.
To consult the amendments tabled: https://aeur.eu/f/4g5 ; https://aeur.eu/f/4g7 ; https://aeur.eu/f/4g9 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)