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The European Commission had rightly drawn attention to the cost of abandoning the integration path in other areas. “Integrated markets have many benefits for businesses and consumers. So we shouldn’t stop halfway”, Mr Weber added.
That went particularly for the retail market, which still lacked transparent, reliable rules at present. Following the integration of, for example, the money and bond markets, retail customers too should now be enabled to fully exploit the potential of the Internal Market. They would benefit mostly through more product diversity and lower prices. At the same time, Mr Weber said that the idea discussed at European level to introduce so-called “26th regimes” for certain banking products that would exist alongside national rules was not very helpful. These would be ignored by customers, as they would be just as alien to them as the legal basis on which foreign suppliers operated. A more promising approach was the Commission’s intention to create more coherent European contract law.
When examining whether the current system of European supervisory authorities is optimal, the Commission proposes a gradual approach backed by Member States. This was welcomed, Mr Weber said, especially as the present supervisory structures no longer reflected the organisational structure of companies in terms of enhanced risk management or cross-border liquidity control, for example. The timetable set out by the Commission laid the foundations for achieving progress in this area in the foreseeable future.