On Thursday 11 January, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) examined the draft report by Othmar Karas (EPP, Austrian) on amendments to several European regulations on financial services.
In total, five regulations are covered by this text, which proposes to lighten the reporting requirements for companies and financial sector players in the European Union.
The proposal, initiated by the European Commission last October, calls for the exchange of information between the European supervisory authorities of financial markets (ESMA, EBA, EIOPA) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) to be encouraged, and for the administrative burden on companies to be reduced.
Mr Karas, who wants to avoid “gold plating” of European financial markets, said that all political institutions within the EU must “put an end to bureaucratisation”. He also welcomed the “broad consensus” emerging from the 69 amendments submitted by MEPs to his draft report.
On behalf of the S&D Group, Alfred Sant from Malta declared his support for the proposal, believing that it would avoid “democratic duplication”. However, he pointed out that this would not be enough to satisfy the ambition of establishing a vast Capital Markets Union (CMU), which is supposed to stimulate private investment and access to capital for small and medium-sized enterprises in particular (see EUROPE 13143/3).
Mr Karas hopes to be able to agree the dossier with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU before the end of the legislative cycle. He also said that he would be ready to negotiate with the EU Council as of mid-February, with a vote scheduled in the parliamentary committee on 29 January to determine Parliament’s position.
See the draft report by Mr Karas: https://aeur.eu/f/acu (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)