Brussels, 11/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Inter-institutional Monitoring Group set up to assess the progress made on implementing the "Lamfalussy process", met up for the first time this week. The group is expected to report results twice a year and, together with the European Commission and attached committees, will adopt measures for the execution of European directives on the integration of the securities markets. The European Parliament will have a degree of control over procedures. The group is composed of six independent experts, nominated by the Council, European Parliament and Commission and which have chosen Graham Bishop to act as a Rapporteur for the first report which should be made public in Spring 2003. The experts will deal with the processes related to the Directives on market abuse and prospectuses, as well as proposals for the revision of the Investment Services Directive and Directive on transparency of security issuers. The Secretariat will be overseen by the Commission.
During a press conference, the Chair of the Economic and Monetary Committee of the European Parliament, Christa Randzio-Plath, welcomed the setting up of the group. Ms Randzio-Plath said that at the very moment when it is a question of extending the Lamfalussy process to insurance and banking, "I therefore very much hope that the Monitoring Group will be able to give the institutions, including the Parliament, high-quality and sophisticate analyses of the workings of the process". She also explained that, "the European Parliament is also keen to ensure that the Lamfalussy process does erode neither the parliamentary legislative process, nor the overall quality of the legislation. It is my hope that the Monitoring Group will help us to ensure that neither of those things happen." Ms Randzio-Plath hoped that the Convention on the future of Europe would result in treaty changes guaranteeing the European Parliament a right of call back.
As indicated in (EUROPE 27 September p 11) the six experts nominated by the European Parliament are: 1) Mr Graham BISHOP (United Kingdom), Consultant for securities markets matters and Mr Norbert WALTER (Germany), Deutsche Bank and former member of the "Committee of Wise Men" on the Regulation of European Securities Markets, chaired by Alexandre Lamfalussy; 2) members nominated by the Council: Mr Mario DRAGHI (Italy), Goldman Sachs, former Head of Italian Treasury and former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) Mrs Kari LOTSBERG (Sweden), Consultant, former State Secretary in the Swedish Ministry of Finance; 3) the European Commission nominated members: Mr Michel PRADA (France), departing President of the Commission des Opérations de Bourse (COB), Mr Walter VAN GERVEN (Belgium), former Advocate General with the European Court of Justice.