Brussels, 02/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 December, European finance ministers underlined a general orientation by qualified majority on four draft directives in the following areas: demands on capital for lending bodies (EUROPE 9787); deposit guarantee systems (EUROPE 9786); activities of European insurance and reassurance companies (Solvency II directive: EUROPE 9787); European rules on undertakings for collective investment in securities (UCITS) (EUROPE 9788). During a public debate, Christine Lagarde, the French minister for the economy, said that this would help them to improve the banking and insurance environment. She also mentioned the positive contact they had developed with the European Parliament. Negotiations will therefore begin with the EP on these proposals to obtain an agreement in first reading.
The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, expressed the extreme concern of his country over: getting rid of the “group support” section in the French presidency compromise on the Solvency Ii directive and the minimum level of own funds set out in the compromise, which is “well below” what some national regulators, including the British regulator, believe appropriate. He asked about the pertinence of rules authorising banks from EEE countries (without mentioning Iceland) to operate in the EU without them having provided sufficient assurances over deposit guarantees. The Netherlands said that the Solvency II proposal was a missed opportunity given the absence of any reference to group support. European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy took this line. Poland indicated that it would be able to resume discussions on group support once the Larosière group had made proposals on European supervision of pan-European financial groups. Ireland and Luxembourg opposed the compromise on the UCITS proposal, which integrates a European passport authorises a company to manage a fund without being established in the same Member State as the fund.
EP. On the same day, the EP economic affairs committee adopted the draft report of Wolf Klinz (ALDE, Germany) on the draft UCITS IV directive (EUROPE 9705). Referring to a clear signal in favour of competitiveness on the harmonised European investment fund market, the rapporteur welcomed the MEPs' vote in favour of introducing a European passport for management companies. Other provisions ratified included speeding up notification procedures as a preliminary to distributing a fund in another Member State, the introduction of a framework for cross border fund mergers, asset pooling and the updating of a standardised document containing all key information to allow investors make an informed choice. The vote on this text in plenary session is planned for the beginning of 2009. The parliamentary committee vote on Christian Ehler's (EPP-ED, Germany) report on deposit guarantee systems was postponed on the request of Socialist MEPs who wanted an extension. It might take place next week. (M.B./trans/rh)