Luxembourg, 11/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The ECOFIN Council on 11 October adopted conclusions on the Commission's Green Paper on Financial Services Policy 2005-2010 (FSAP) published in May this year (see EUROPE 8941): the Council 'reaffirms that full and consistent implementation and effective enforcement of all FSAP measures must now have priority; and stresses that Member States must play their role by transposing and implementing the agreed FSAP texts on time.' It emphasised that 'the momentum should be maintained for finalising important initiatives under way, such as the preparation of the Solvency II project in the insurance sector' and underlined 'the intention, at its December meeting, to further assess the Commission's post-FSAP strategy in light of the Commission's White Paper.'
The Council stressed that 'an integrated EU market for financial services poses further challenges for financial supervision in Europe, especially as regards supervision of cross-border groups and entities, and therefore encourages the ongoing work of the FSC (Financial Services Committee, Ed.) on enhancing the EU's supervisory arrangements, and in particularly, looks forward to its assessment, for spring 2006, of further policy priorities in developing financial supervision in the EU.'
The Council welcomed 'the ongoing efforts by the Commission, the FSC and the EFC (Economic and Financial Committee, Ed.) in the area of financial stability and crisis management, and invites the Commission to assess obstacles to information exchange between EU supervisory authorities, central banks and finance ministries; as well as current arrangements for deposit guarantee schemes.' The Council noted that it 'agrees with the Commission on the importance of the EU's global competitiveness, and thus invites the Commission to further develop the ongoing Regulatory Dialogue with the US and other important trading partners (China and Japan, Ed.) by further enhancing its proactive and forward-looking nature.' The Council emphasised 'the importance of the Better Regulation approach to be applied by the Commission to any new initiatives, including open and transparent consultation at all levels with an appropriate involvement also of consumers, thorough ex-ante economic impact assessments and ex-post evaluations, all based on a clear and transparent methodology,'