On Tuesday 18 February, the European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union, Maria Albuquerque, reaffirmed the need to simplify administrative procedures in the financial services sector within the European Union. “Ambitious” adjustments have been announced for Wednesday 26 February.
“Simplification is not an end in itself”, Ms Albuquerque told the European finance ministers meeting in Brussels. The aim, she reminded them, is above all to strengthen competitiveness and stimulate economic growth.
“Work is ongoing to identify measures, including level one legislation, aiming to reach these important objectives”, she added, indicating that a first simplification package was being studied on the sustainable finance framework.
“We want to propose measures that bring real alleviations without compromising the fundamental policy objectives of our policies”, she declared.
With this in mind, the Spanish Finance Minister, Carlos Cuerpo, stressed the need to maintain high ambitions in terms of climate change, despite the planned reduction in the administrative burden. “This is aligned with the European DNA, and we expressed this in a letter sent yesterday to the four Commissioners concerned”, he declared at a press conference.
On the Polish side, the Presidency of the Council of the EU has stated that it intends to raise the topic of “simplification and deregulation” at each Ecofin Council, citing it as an “top priority”.
“Now we look forward to the first ambitious ‘omnibus’ proposal” said Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domański. “Europe must become an economic superpower, not a regulatory one”, he stressed.
‘FiDA’. Despite reports in the Politico media of failed internal discussions on a withdrawal by the European Commission of the draft ‘FiDA’ regulation on the sharing of financial data (see EUROPE 13538/18), Commissioner Albuquerque said on Tuesday that an agreement between the co-legislators was still possible under the Polish Presidency.
“It is essential to take a close look at costs and administrative burdens and work to minimise them. However, this must not prevent us from being ambitious in the pace of our work”, Ms Albuquerque warned the ministers.
Retail investment strategy. Inter-institutional negotiations have been announced for March on the legislative package to protect retail investors (see EUROPE 13543/22). Andrzej Domański stated that, under the Polish Presidency, two months would be devoted to reaching a satisfactory compromise, failing which, in his opinion, “the future of this project” would have to be “reconsidered”.
As with the FiDA dossier, Poland still wishes to examine the possibilities of further simplifying the current text. “We must all be aware that over-regulation of the market has negative consequences for everyone. A balance therefore needs to be struck between the general objectives of the proposal and improving competitiveness”, Domański told his European counterparts.
Payment services In addition, the Polish Minister has said that he would like to see a negotiating mandate from the EU Council on the proposed PSD3 directive and PSR regulation on payment services as soon as possible. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)