-The Council held a debate on the Danish Presidency ECOFIN work programme for the forthcoming six months. Key areas are among others:
the adoption of the tax package as a whole before the end of 2002,
to reach political agreement on the Prospectuses Directive, strengthen cooperation in the field of financial supervision and make the supervisory structure for the EU’s financial markets more effective.
The Council also took note of an interim report form the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) on EU arrangements for financial regulation, supervision and stability and had a preliminary exchange of views on certain key issues such as
comitology arrangements for financial regulation,
political accountability, supervisory as well as financial stability arrangements.
On comitology arrangements to elaborate the new approach for all financial sectors based on the ‘four-level Lamfalussy framework’ for securities, ECOFIN adopted the conclusion that the new approach should:
enhance cross-sectoral consistency, including facilitating consideration of issues related to financial conglomerates in the 'level 2' regulatory committee or committees, while taking into account the specificities of the insurance sector; and
take into account synergies between banking supervision and central banking.
The EFC was asked to produce its report on implementation modalities by the end of September, which should among others:
indicate reporting mechanisms with respect to the Council and the European Parliament, and
propose an indicative timetable for implementation and evaluation of the possible new arrangements.
The Council confirmed the agreement reached with the European Parliament and the Commission on 10 July 2002 on the mandate for the Inter-institutional monitoring Committee. This Group should:
assess the progress made on implementing the Lamfalussy process to secure a more effective securities market regulatory system, and
identify any possible emerging bottlenecks in this process.
The Group should begin working as soon as possible. The mandate for the Group may be revised as part of a full review in 2004.
Results of ECOFIN – Provisional Version
Background Note
See also Commission press release
© Council of the European Union
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