Insurance Europe: EC must prioritise global competitiveness of EU financial services

03 March 2020

A group of financial associations — including Insurance Europe — has written to European Commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, to call for the new Commission to ensure that the global competitiveness of European financial services is a key objective in its policymaking.

The associations fully support the Commission’s objectives of preserving and improving financial stability, protecting savers and investors, and ensuring flows of capital to where it is needed. Indeed, the need to maintain a robust regulatory framework for the financial sector and the Commission’s ambition to promote Europe’s competitiveness on the global stage are two sides of the same coin.

The associations also called on the Commission to:

• Ensuring an international level playing field and focus on eliminating the potential for any regulatory arbitrage between Europe and other jurisdictions that could create competitive disadvantages for European companies.
• Continue working with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to ensure compliance with the existing inter-institutional agreement on better law-making. When carrying out impact assessments, impact analysis should also be done with global competitiveness in mind.
• Rigorously implement the “one in — one out” approach to regulation proposed by the new Commission. The compliance burden and risks for the EU financial services industry increased considerably during the last Commission’s mandate, mainly due to EU texts being developed in silos and without recognising that multiple EU texts might apply at the same time at the point of sale, creating overload and duplication, which in turn impacts global competitiveness considerably.
• Acknowledge that a globally competitive and vibrant European financial services industry is vital for making the Capital Markets Union a reality.

Full letter on Insurance Europe

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