Commission adopts additional legislative proposals to strengthen financial supervision in Europe
27 October 2009
The proposals will make targeted changes to existing financial services legislation to ensure that the new authorities can work effectively. It will ensure, among other things, a more harmonised set of financial rules on information sharing.
The European Commission has adopted additional legislative proposals today to further strengthen financial supervision in Europe. Following the adoption of a legislative package to strengthen financial supervision in Europe on 23 September 2009, including the creation of a European System of Financial Supervisors with three new European Supervisory Authorities, the Commission proposes to make targeted changes to existing financial services legislation to ensure that the new Authorities can work effectively. In particular, these proposals lay down in detail the scope for the Authorities to exercise their powers, ensuring a more harmonised set of financial rules through the possibility of developing draft technical standards, settling disagreements between national supervisors and facilitating the sharing of micro-prudential information. The package will now be sent to the Council and the European Parliament for consideration.
The areas in which amendments are proposed fall broadly into the following categories:
· Definition of the appropriate areas in which the Authorities will be able to propose technical standards as an additional tool for supervisory convergence and with a view to developing a single rule book;
· Incorporation in an appropriate manner of the possibility for the Authorities to settle disagreements between national supervisors in a balanced way, in those areas where common decision-making processes already exist in sectoral legislation; and
· General amendments which are necessary for the Directives to operate in the context of new authorities, for example, renaming the level 3 committees to the new authorities and ensuring the appropriate gateways for the exchange of information are present.
Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said "This proposal complements and reinforces our supervision package of 23 September and provides more detail about precisely what powers are proposed for the new European Supervisory Authorities and in what areas. I urge the Council and the Parliament to adopt the whole supervision package in good time to allow the new Authorities to come into being at the end of 2010, if not before."
© European Commission
