Brussels, 19/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the invitation of the European Commission, leading figures from EU institutions, governments, regulatory bodies and the financial services industry will meet at the Bibliothèque Solvay in Brussels, on 22 February, to assess progress towards European financial integration. This mid term review of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) adopted in May 1999 aims to assess, on the eve of the Barcelona Summit, the state of play so far and look at what still needs to be done to meet the target of full FSAP implementation by 2005. Romano Prodi, European Commission President, will address the meeting, as will Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes, current President of the EU Council of Finance Ministers Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo, and Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders. Other speakers will include Danish Finance Minister Thor Pedersen and Baron Alexander Lamfalussy, who chaired the Committee of Wise Men on the Regulation of European Securities Markets. Christa Randzio-Plath, Chair of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, will also attend the meeting.
In Barcelona, the Commission plans to invite the Heads of State and Government to take the decisions needed in the financial services sector to achieve the objectives of Lisbon, namely that of making Europe the most competitive economy in the world by 2010.
(The programme is available at the following address: http: //http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/ internal_market/fr/finances/actionplan/index.htm