Timetable:
Consideration of a draft report: 27 February 2007
Deadline for tabling amendments: 20 March 2007
Consideration of amendments: 10 April 2007
Vote in committee: 11 April 2007
Vote in plenary: 21/24 May 2007

Portability of supplementary pension rights
The ECON draft opinion was adopted by a majority

Exchange of views with Mr McCreevy
Commissioner McCreevy first focused on the EU-US relationship summarizing the current achievements on accounting, deregulation and Basel II. The commissioner is of the opinion that US law will soon move in the direction of EU legislation rather than vice verse as the progress made in improving EU law has proved to be a success and the EU market became the most attractive one.

Some members voiced criticism of Commissioner McCreevy's 'over-optimistic' view of the state of progress of EU-US regulatory cooperation on financial markets, particularly with respect to the Basel II agreement.

He then turned to current EU projects. On the Payment Directive he underlined that a Council agreement has to be found on the prudential regulation of payment institutions. Other issues currently under discussion relate to the prudential assessment on Mergers and Acquisitions and on retail services.

McCreevy did not comment on the sector inquiry on retail banking as the report was to be officially published the next day. However, he explained that the Commission is now waiting for the responses on the inquiry.

He also underlined that the Commission does not intend to contribute to the discussion on Hedge Funds as currently there is not even a common definition on what these fund are. Also, Member States do have their own legislation to deal with hedge funds internally.

European Parliament Committee responsible for economic and monetary policies
www. europarl.europa.eu',WIDTH, 300, SHADOW, true, FADEIN, 300, FADEOUT, 300, STICKY, 1,DURATION,3500)" onmouseout="UnTip()");">ECON 300107.pdf' target='_blank'> ECON - Summary of meeting 30 January 2007

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