Brussels, 03/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on Monday 2 March after a meeting in camera with members of the European Parliament's committee on economic and monetary affairs, the chairman of the banking supervision committee of the European Central Bank (ECB), Peter Praet, underlined the “urgent nature” of reform of the European financial surveillance system. He described the de Larosière report, presented at the end of February to the European Commission, as a good mix between “vision and pragmatism”. The group of experts chaired by Jacques de Larosière de Champfeu recommends strengthening the role of the ECB with regard to macro-prudential supervision as well as in the field of micro-prudential supervision, and the transformation into European authorities of the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR), the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) (see EUROPE 9848). According to Mr Praet, provisions relating to the crisis management mechanism are the “weakest link” in the de Larosière report, as they are not sufficiently explicit on financial burden-sharing between member states in the event of failure of a cross-border institution. “How can this load be shared?”, he asked. In the run-up to the European Council on systemic risk suggested by the de Larosière report as a replacement for the current EC banking supervision committee, he stressed the importance of having a sufficiently large and independent staff. (M.B./transl.jl)