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With today's opinion, the Commission strongly welcomes the initiative to provide the ECB with a clear regulatory competence in the area of central clearing. With the proposed amendment to its Statute, the ECB seeks to bring clearing systems for financial instruments within its regulatory competences. This important change will enable the ECB to fully perform the tasks conferred on it by the recent Commission proposal to amend the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). In his Letter of Intent of September 2017, Commission President Juncker urged the European Parliament and Council to swiftly adopt the proposal to amend EMIR and the ECB recommendation to amend Article 22.
In its opinion, the Commission also recommends some limited adjustments to the ECB proposal to underline the need for consistency with the regulatory powers between the ECB, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission with regard to clearing systems.
The European Parliament and the Council will now consider for adoption the proposed changes to the ECB statute under the ordinary legislative procedure, thanks to a simplified procedure under Article 129(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. As President Juncker underlined in his State of the Union speech of 13 September, making use of the possibilities offered by such clauses – namely allowing for technical changes to the Treaty under the ordinary legislative procedure – is an important tool to allow for faster and more efficient EU decision-making. [...]