Brussels, 04/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU's EcoFin Council of 7 May should focus on subjects relating to the goal of the integration of the financial markets by 2005, as decided by the European Council of Lisbon, and over which some important difference remain between certain Member States and the European Commission. It is a question, on the one hand, of the draft directive on pension funds, and, on the other, implementation of the directive on electronic commerce for financial services. The Finance Ministers will also deal with the follow-up to the European Council of Stockholm, of which one of the main acquis was the Lamfalussy Report, and broach the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines 2001 (Gopes) and the dialogue with Russia. Over lunch, the Fifteen will be briefed on the meeting of the Eurogroup (see below). They will also hear a report from the Economic and Financial Committee on EMU statistics, one of the main observations of which is the shortcoming of certain Member States regarding financing.. They will, moreover, examine the question of the EU's preferential status within the Club of Paris. Finally, they will examine a request by the Netherlands, backed by Luxembourg, to make Mongolia one of the operating countries of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), so that it may benefit from the expertise and financing of this banking institution. Here is an overview of the EcoFin meeting, that will be chaired by Swedish Minister Bosse Ringholm, whereas Commissioners Pedro Solbes and Frits Bolkestein, respectively responsible for economic and monetary affairs and the Internal Market, will represent the European Commission:
Follow-up to the European Council of Stockholm. The Swedish Presidency and Commission will brief Member States on their contacts with the European Parliament on implementing the resolution of the Lamfalussy Report, notably from the point of view of committee procedures and the rejection by the Commission of a proposal by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs to reach agreement between the three institutions (see below).
Broad Economic Policy Guidelines. The Council will have an initial round-the-table talks on the Commission's recommendation, intended for the Economic and Financial Committee, in anticipation of Ecofin's approval of a draft that will be forwarded to the European Council of Gothenburg in June for adoption.
Dialogue between the European Union and Russia. The Council will prepare the dialogue with Russia in view of the Moscow Summit of 17 May. Mr. Ringholm, who considers this issue a priority, will brief his colleagues on the subjects of his trip to Moscow on 10 and 11 May, in the company of the President of the Eurogroup, Didier Reynders and Pedro Solbes. Among the subjects of the meeting are the strengthening of the prospects for growth in Russia, measures to develop investments, and certain fields of cooperation. The Commission would like to speed up this dialogue and increase technical assistance to Russia.
Pension funds. The Swedish Presidency will try to have conclusions adopted on the draft directive on vocational pension institutions (pension funds), dating back to October 2000 (see EUROPE of 11 October, p.14). The directive aims to align prudential standards applicable to these funds, liberalise the rules of management applicable to them and set up a framework for cooperation between national monitoring bodies. This is one of the main measures the Commission initiated in the framework of the action plan for financial services. Due to differences between Member States on the legal system applied to pensions, especially in the case of complementary pensions, the directive is said not yet to be ready, according to several delegations, to be adopted. For lack of this adoption, Swedish Presidency conclusions have been discussed by Coreper on two occasions, without an agreement emerging: they favour the self-regulatory approach recommended by Commissioner Frits Bolkestein. France is not concealing its distrust of this liberal approach. Diplomatic sources say that disagreement risks continuing on Monday on two issues: 1) rules applicable to reserves, for which France favours a quantitative approach, whereas the Netherlands, United kingdom and the Commission want this to be qualitative, or through reference to the abstract criterion of the "cautious man", and prefer self-regulation; 2 ) rules applicable to investments, that the Commission, backed by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands want to be general, whereas France is pleading for the adoption of detailed rules.
Tax on pensions. Commissioner Bolkestein will present a communication on the elimination of tax obstacles to the supply of complementary cross-border pensions, adopted on 19 April (see EUROPE of 20 April, p.9).
Electronic commerce and financial services. Ministers will hold a debate on the application of the directive on electronic commerce and financial services. The European Commission proposes application of the principle of supplier's country of origin. Only France, supported for a while by Spain, Greece, Italy and Belgium, is still opposed to this solution, mainly because of the nature of its rules for consumer protection and the influence of consumer associations.