15 January 2009

EP Plenary meeting 12-15 January

Parliament adopted the recast version of the UCITS directive and celebrated the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the Euro, pointing in particular on its stabilizing role during the crisis.

Parliament adopted the recast version of the UCITS directive and celebrated the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the Euro.

 

UCITS directive

The Parliament adopted the recast of the UCITS directive inserting provisions for a "management company passport".

 

The directive still needs to be approved by the Council, but the informal agreement already reached means this is now a formality.  Member States will need to enact national legislation to apply the main changes by 1 July 2011.

 

In a statement following the vote rapporteur Wolf Klinz reminded the fund industry to come up with a valuable proposal on the treatment of fund processing. Otherwise, legislative measures have to discussed, he said.

 

EP press release

Adopted text (available soon – 13th January) (preliminary version of 10 December 08)

 

Ten years of the euro

EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering called the common currency "a bastion of economic stability". In spite of scepticism surrounding the planned common currency, after ten years "we can see that the euro has created a lot of trust, and has offered a lot of benefits for EU citizens and companies", he said, adding that with the majority of trade being internal to the euro areas, it "is better prepared to protect Member States from external shocks".

 

Pointing to the worldwide financial crisis, the EP President said the euro has proved to be "a decisive element for stability", with the European System of Central Banks acting as "a stabilising factor". "The common currency has protected us from the worst consequences of the worse financial crisis since the 1930s", he said.

 

Hans Gert-Pöttering cited Ireland as a country that had been particularly hard-hit by the financial crisis, but its membership of the common currency meant it had been "defended from a much worse crisis".

 

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the euro was "one of the great achievements of Europe... One day it will be seen as decisive step on road to ever closer union of peoples of Europe."

 

"In recent months we have seen another benefit of the euro: the financial crisis is demonstrating that in turbulent financial waters it is better to be on a large, solid and steady ship rather than on a small vessel”, Trichet said.

 

The euro, he said, was now firmly established as a stable currency with a sound central bank.  Its future success would depend on how well Europe reacted to the weaknesses revealed in the global financial system, firm implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact and constant efforts to render our economies more productive, while avoiding competitive divergences between Member States, as well as properly handling future enlargement.

 

Eurgroup Chair Jean-Claude Juncker called the Euro “an anchor of stability, protecting us from the worst consequences of crises. It is an undisputed success."

 
But the real test for cohesion of euro was still ahead, he said. 2009 would be an extremely difficult year for the citizens and economies of eurozone. "Governments will have to act together to tackle the impact of the crisis and invest in structural factors to build for future."

 

There was need for a thorough reform of the global financial system and also to eliminate imbalances between consumption and saving around the world, he said. This would need the cooperation of the United States and the major economies of Asia. Regarding the Euro's external representation, Mr Juncker said that too often national interests dominated the stage and the euro area's real economic weight was not felt in international forums.

 

The Euro, and European Monetary Union are an "unarguable success" which are still providing strength and stability in the current crisis, said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquín Almunia.

 

The euro, he said, had become the world's second currency, functioning, like the dollar, as an instrument for international trade and payments. The euro also "protects us against external imbalances", said the Commissioner, stressing that without it, the crisis would have been far worse, inducing exchange-rate volatility and perhaps speculative attacks on currencies. At the same time, the European Central Bank took the necessary measures and led co-operation with other central banks that helped to prevent collapse, he added.

 

France's former President Valery Giscard D'Estaing said the euro's success has exceeded the expectations even of its promoters, noting that in 10 years had become the world's second currency, and stressing that "sound management is our shield in times of crisis".

Financial supervision needs "maintenance work", said Mr Giscard D'Estaing, who recommended starting with Maastricht Treaty Article 106, paragraph 5 (amendments to the Statute of the European System of Central Banks).

 

The euro's success should "redouble our courage to take the next step in building a united Europe under the treaty - and find the dynamics of success", concluded Mr Giscard D'Estaing.

EP press release

Speech Trichet

Audio file of speeches

 

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