Brussels, 29/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the President of the Economic and Monetary Committee, German Social Democrat, Christa Randzio-Plath introduced the independent group of experts , which the Parliamentary committee had just set up to help in the examination of directive proposals and consultation documents that the European Commission will be presenting in the framework of an action plan on financial services. The group consists of ten people chosen for their experience in their particular sectors: Professor Nis Jul Clausen (University of Southern Denmark); Professor Philip Molyneux (University of Wales); Professor Marco Pagano (Università di salerno); Professor Blanche Sousi (Université Lyon III); Didier Davydoff (Observatoire européen de l'Epargne, Paris); Manuel Esteve (Madrid); Marianne Kager (Bank of Austria/Creditanstalt); Hans-Helmut Kotz LZB, Bremen; Ruben Lee (Oxford Finance Group, London); Fields Wicker-Miurin (Vespa capital Advisors, London).
During a press conference, Ms Randzio-Plath stressed the importance of such a group for advising the committee, which would benefit from independent advice that would allow it to take into account interests other than just those of industry, as well as all other actors in society. Ms Randzio-Plath explained that, "the European Parliament is working hard to guarantee that a wide, quality legal framework is rapidly put into place for the integrated financial market". She also hoped that the experts group would be as useful in helping to reach this objective, as the group had been which was set up to help with monetary issue in the preparation of the regular dialogue with MEPs and the President of the European Central Bank.