04 June 2002

Results of ECOFIN Meeting 4 June 2002

The Council held an orientation debate on a draft Directive on Prospectuses, with a view to agreeing on political guidelines for further work in this area. The discussion should focus on clarifying the situation concerning professional and non-professional investors on the one hand, and the choice of home Member State on the other.

The diversity of divergence on this draft Directive that has emerged within the Council during initial discussions under the Belgian and Spanish Presidencies reflects at the same time different general approaches to how the securities primary market in the EU should be organised and harmonised, having in mind existing domestic practices, and differences of view on a number of very detailed issues.

The Commission proposal was presented on 30 May 2001. Since then the relevant working party has been examining the proposal, with the UK delegation publicly expressing strong reservations on the Commission draft following fears expressed by Market undertakings in the UK that if adopted as proposed by the Commission, the new Directive could jeopardise the City's future (including the Alternative Investment Market). Other delegations have expressed similar concerns, albeit less strongly.

Pensions

The Council reached a Political Agreement on the Pension Funds Directive on an overall Presidency compromise.

Building on the progress made during previous presidencies, the current Presidency has drawn up a consolidated version of the draft Directive, taking into account the opinions of Member States as well as the amendments tabled by the European Parliament.

The Presidency believes that the text represents a balanced compromise and that it means an important first step towards a single market for occupational retirement provision while at the same time securing a high degree of protection for members and beneficiaries, establishing a common prudential framework, and respecting each Member State's competence in the organisation of their social security systems.

Sixth Progress report on the Financial Services Action Plan

The Council formally took note of the Commission's sixth progress report on the Financial Services Action Plan. The Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) is now halfway through its timetable for implementation, and important progress has been made since the last report was presented in December. The Commission believes that the pace of recent successes needs to be continued if the 2005 deadlines are to be met.

Taxation

Among others, the Council agreed on a report on the tax package which will be forwarded to the Seville European Council for information.
As regards the Code of Conduct, the Council took note of a progress report from the Code of Conduct Group on the following areas: standstill, rollback and transparency and exchange of information in transfer pricing.

In respect of the Taxation of Savings Income, the Council was informed on the current state of negotiations between the Commission and the countries identified in the Conclusion of the Feira European Council (United States, Switzerland, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino and Liechtenstein), as well as on the discussions between the Member States concerned and their dependent or associated territories. While the negotiations with most third countries are ongoing, the Union has not yet formally opened negotiations with Switzerland, pending the opening of negotiations on a number of unrelated subjects, such as participation in the Schengen/Dublin acquis, liberalisation of trade in services and participation in the Media plus audio-visual programme. It is expected that the Council will adopt negotiating Directives on these issues by 17 June 2002.

Results on ECOFIN meeting

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