The resolution tabled by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs is certainly much better than the original version, and I want to thank the rapporteur, Mr García-Margallo y Marfil. However, I have not been able to vote for it because it still contains inconsistencies after the plenary vote. Thus, as regards the idea of the creation of a commission for stock exchange operations, I recommend a green paper on the establishment or gradual creation of such a commission, preceded by a feasibility study. Moreover, the subsidiarity principle requires that, at a time of remarkable boom in the craze for cross-border investments in securities, we bear in mind that the interests of the issuing companies and investors will be better served by proximity of supervision and monitoring of international investments, with more efficient channels for cooperation between the monitoring authorities. Supervision of the securities markets can be carried out better by people close to the markets and with in-depth knowledge of them. In this context, comparison with the commission in place in the United States, the SEC, is particularly inappropriate, because the SEC is the corollary of a financial system resulting largely from a segmentation of the profession between commercial banks and investment banks, and in Europe we have chosen the universal bank model, which has strengthened the role of the banks in the European financial system. It would be equally aberrant to include the stock exchange listing rules in the remit of such a commission, when at most it should ensure respect for them. The establishment of a pan-European equity listing would also be aberrant. Harmonised yet competitive listings guarantee a diversity of investment products. A pan-European listing would make it impossible for national stock exchanges to concentrate on niche markets and would restrict opportunities for specialisation which may emerge from a competitive situation, even though it is convergent. Instead of focusing on the listings – already largely harmonised anyway – to the detriment of diversity, we should emphasise rapprochement or even harmonisation of existing dealing systems and environments should be emphasised. On prudential supervision, I made a direct appeal to the Commission and the Council yesterday not to cling to the crazy idea of entrusting supervision of all the credit establishments in the fifteen Member States to the European Central Bank. Governments control banking activities, hence the need for financial sector supervision by government authorities, not the European Central Bank. I have not voted for paragraph 26 which is mostly incomprehensible in French anyway. - Kuckelhorn report (A5-0053/2000) . – (IT) Mr President, considering that we are discussing supplementary pensions, the representative of the Pensioners’ Party could not let the occasion pass without explaining why he voted for this measure. I am convinced that the future of pensioners can only lie in supplementary pensions. These pensions should, however, be optional and replace compulsory State pensions, which are a veritable sieve and lose water from all sides. When we cook spaghetti, which is a delicious Italian national dish, we use a colander, a container full of holes which drains the water off the spaghetti. Well, instead of a colander, we could use the national State schemes, which, I am afraid, also lose water from all sides, except that, instead of water, it is the hard-earned money of all the working citizens which drains away. For this reason, we must replace the national State pension schemes with private supplementary and alternative pension schemes.

Political group: PPE-DE