Brussels, 07/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - At its plenary session next week in Strasbourg, the European Parliament will be adopting the report by the Dutch EPP MEP, Karla Peijs, on the regulation concerning cross-border payments that the European Commission proposed in July 2001 in order to force banks to set the same charges for cross-border and domestic transfers in euro. Karla Peijs explained at a press conference on Wednesday that after two meetings between the Parliamentary rapporteur and Council representatives, she hoped that the regulation could be adopted in a single reading. The Internal Market Council will give its opinion on 26 November 2001.
Under compromise amendments, the EP is expected to exclude cheques from the scope of application of the regulation and postpone the date it enters into force until March 2002 in order to leave enough time for the regulation to be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. The Commission had planned for the regulation to come into force on 1 January 2002 for cash withdrawals and transfers, and from 2003 onwards for cheques and credit transfers. Portuguese Socialist Helena Torres Marques also wanted to table an amendment stipulating that a monitoring mechanism had to be created, but Ms Peijs said that Member States had their doubts about this. In a recital to the regulation, the EP will explain that it would be regrettable if the regulation were to lead to a rise in the cost of domestic payments.
Ms Peijs commented that while she did not oppose the idea of self regulation put forward by the banks because the regulation is an emergency measure rather than a panacea, Parliament would not agree with the substance of the code of conduct proposed by the banking sector and would therefore be continuing to process the regulation so it can be adopted. The European Banking Federation proposed at the end of October to replace the regulation with a voluntary banking code of conduct whereby an additional EUR 12 change would be levied on cross-border payments over and above the cost of domestic payments, which would be phased out and disappear altogether in 2006. Ms Peijs said that this proposal had no technical basis since EUR 12 was arbitrarily chosen as being half the average charge that the Commission found was being applied in its investigations into the cost of cross-border transfers in Europe. Moreover, the 2006 deadline is too long, she added, and the agreement only covers a third of European banks. The President of the EP's Economics Committee, Christa Randzio-Plath (SPD) added that the system proposed by the banks was completely lacking in transparency. She added that there an EU directive on the application of transparent bank charges already existed and she hoped that the Commission would take all necessary measures to apply sanctions to banks that fail to apply the legislation on cross-border transfers once the euro notes and coins have been introduced.