On Tuesday 10 December, the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union outlined the current state of legislative affairs in the area of financial services. These include the retail investment strategy (see EUROPE 13187/21), which will not be the subject of inter-institutional negotiations (trilogue) with the European Parliament this year, confirmed the Hungarian Finance Minister.
This key legislative package for the completion of Capital Markets Union (see EUROPE 13410/7) will therefore be in the hands of the Polish Presidency of the Council from January 2025, but it has deemed the reform “controversial”, despite the position adopted collectively by the EU Member States last June (see EUROPE 13430/14).
“Some [current issues] will definitely need reconsideration, whether they are good ideas, which ones as well, for example, the retail investment strategy, which I also think is quite, quite controversial. We need to discuss this with the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin)”, said Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domański on Tuesday, when presenting the priorities of the future Presidency to the press.
According to the European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union, Maria Albuquerque, who attended the Ecofin Council on Tuesday, “the European Parliament and the EU Council have quite substantially weakened the Commission’s proposal in their approaches”.
“We must work together to increase retail investor’s participation, the cornerstone of the Savings and Investment Union”, she added.
Two financial dossiers are currently being negotiated between the co-legislators. The Hungarian Presidency hopes to be able to announce agreements in December on the financial reporting regulation (see EUROPE 13435/4) and on the revision of the benchmarks regulation (see EUROPE 13398/36). (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)