Brussels, 15/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - As recommended by Commissioner David Byrne and its rapporteur, Austrian Social Democrat Maria Berger, the European Parliament finally made only two minor changes to the Council's common position on the directive on distance marketing of financial services. These two amendments, presented by the PES and EPP-ED Groups, concern notary intervention and the importance of consumer agreement for implementation of the contract. They were endorsed by the European Commission and should not raise objections in Council, thus allowing conciliation procedure to be avoided on this text which guarantees minimum harmonisation of consumer protection by authorising Member States to maintain regulations that ensure the highest level of protection. All amendments adopted by the legal committee with a view to strengthening the degree of harmonisation were rejected. After the vote, the shadow rapporteur of the EPP-ED Group on this issue, German national Klaus-Heiner Lehne (CDU), regretted that the Parliament did not seize the opportunity thus provided to create a real single market for financial services.
During the debate, Ms Berger appealed to her colleagues who had submitted amendments that could clash with the Council, "which has not evolved", so that they give up the idea and so that it may be possible to avoid delaying adoption of the directive. British Conservative Malcolm Harbour urged for consistency on the single market and criticised the possibility left by the Council to have different provisions especially concerning consumer information and protection. Belgian Liberal Ward Beysen noted it is impossible to reach the broad harmonisation proposed by the Commission in the beginning. "Politics is the art of the possible", he exclaimed before adding: "it is better to have a partial solution than no solution at all". Finnish Green member Heidi Hautala felt that, at this stage, it is preferable to apply minimum regulations and that, when there is no harmonisation, the national rules may continue to apply because this allows better consumer protection to be guaranteed. She therefore gives her support to the common position. Commissioner David Byrne pointed out that the European Commission supports the common position, which is "balanced", as well as two amendments concerning the possibility of intervention by a notary and the fact that implementation of the contract can only begin with the consumer's agreement. Mr Byrne also recalled that the directive has been under preparation since 1998.