The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union has made economic competitiveness one of its priorities for the first half of 2024. In the area of finance, it intends to focus its action on the Capital Markets Union (CMU) initiative in order to “activate private savings and encourage private investments”, while ensuring the stability and sustainability of financial services. To achieve this, a number of legislative dossiers need to be rapidly concluded before the end of the EU legislative cycle.
Belgium’s aim is to secure as many agreements as possible between the European co-legislators by the first quarter of 2024, with the April plenary session of the European Parliament being the last to ratify these agreements.
Interinstitutional trilogue negotiations are therefore likely to dominate the coming weeks, particularly with regard to the CMU. Agreements will have to be reached between the Council of the EU and Parliament on legislation governing the listing of companies on stock exchanges (‘Listing Act’) (see EUROPE 13278/23), clearing services (‘EMIR’ Regulation and Directive on market infrastructures) (see EUROPE 13308/3) and benchmark indices (‘BMR’ Regulation) (see EUROPE 13318/15).
On the EU Retail Investment Strategy, the European Commission’s legislative proposal of last May was largely amended in Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) (see EUROPE 13264/22), with the draft report by Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French) dividing the political groups (see EUROPE 13278/24). At the Council of the EU, the previous Spanish Presidency stated in a report published on 15 December that it had noted significant progress on this issue, inviting the Belgian Presidency to continue the work carried out in recent months.
See the Spanish Presidency’s progress report: https://aeur.eu/f/aax
The current challenge for the EU Council is to reach a political agreement in principle (‘general approach’) on this legislative package, which should encourage investment in retail financial products, in line with the Capital Markets Union 2020 Action Plan. However, the dossier is not expected to be finalised before the European elections.
Sustainable finance. The Belgian Presidency also aims to complete work on the Regulation on environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and to reach a Parliament/EU Council agreement before the end of its term. Parliament’s ECON Committee adopted its position at the beginning of December and decided to begin negotiations with the EU Council (see EUROPE 13306/18). Two weeks later, the Spanish Presidency reached a political agreement between the Member States (see EUROPE 13318/14). An initial negotiation meeting (‘trilogue’) is scheduled for Thursday 11 January.
Belgium also wants to finalise the work and reach an agreement with Parliament on the ‘Sustainable Finance Framework that Works on the Ground’, presented in June by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13200/14).
“The Belgian Presidency will support efforts to enhance the workability of the EU’s sustainable finance framework and ensure accessibility and consistency in its implementation”, the programme states.
It welcomes the Commission’s programme to streamline reporting requirements for businesses in many areas of EU legislation, reducing the burden of reporting obligations by 25%.
On 1 January, the European Sustainable Reporting Standards (‘ESRS’) came into force for large companies (see EUROPE 13302/21). The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) will be responsible for assisting these companies with implementation. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani and Bernard Denuit)