15 January 2002

Commission Communication on Barcelona

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The Commission has published a communication for the spring summit in Barcelona reviewing the progress made on the Lisbon strategy and declaring financial market integration a priority area where the European Council should give a decisive impulse to action. It states that little progress has been made on moving forward with the Commission’s plans for integrating the service sector. Some of the most important structural reforms have not been delivered. They have seen only limited progress, yet the deadlines were set by the Heads of State and Governments.

Work on creating the regulatory framework needed to achieve integrated financial markets must be accelerated, the communication states. Progress has been made towards the Lisbon targets of fully integrated securities markets by 2003 and financial services markets by 2005, but it has not been fast enough (…). The UCITS Directives on harmonised investment funds and the Regulation on cross-border payments have already been formally adopted. Decisions are needed on the other key elements of the Financial Services Action Plan if the Union is to deliver an integrated financial services sector on time as promised by the Lisbon and Stockholm European Councils.

The paper proposes following measures to be undertaken:

The European Parliament and Council should:

adopt by June 2002 pending proposals on Distance Marketing of financial services, Collateral, Market Abuse, and International Accounting Standards;

adopt by December 2002 pending proposals on Pension Funds, Financial Conglomerates and Prospectuses.

The High Level Expert Group on Company Law, set up by the European Commission, has delivered its first report on issues related to Takeover Bids. Taking into account its recommendations, the Commission will bring forward a new proposal in the second quarter of this year. It would like full political agreement on this crucial issue by the end of 2002. See full paper

The related Staff Working Paper in support of the communication provides a general overview of the new policy and other actions developed at the European level in response to the Lisbon strategy. A table showing the current stand of the Financial Services Action Plan is also attached (pp.26/27).

© European Commission