Mr President, I would like to sincerely congratulate the three rapporteurs, and I believe that this cooperation between the Commission and the Council should set the pattern for future discussions. I believe it is very important for the Commission and the Council to work towards strengthening the way the European Parliament functions in this area, as provided for in the Lamfalussy report, so that we can also exercise our democratic rights in the monitoring committee while preserving complete neutrality. The three directives that we are discussing today and voting on tomorrow aim to overcome the fragmentation of Europe's financial markets, to enhance their attractiveness and competitiveness, and at the same time also to strengthen financial stability and consumer protection. The elimination of obstacles to market access and bureaucratic regulations, the removal of antiquated and rigid supervisory structures and their replacement by flexible and market-oriented supervisory rules and instruments are indispensable requirements for the creation of an integrated financial market and for ensuring the competitiveness of Europe's financial service providers. However, this should not be allowed to jeopardise financial stability or to lead to a deterioration in consumer rights as regards cross-border transactions. We should make total transparency and strict regulatory and supervisory mechanisms, including appropriate sanctions, the hallmark of the quality of Europe's financial markets. It is of course also important to regain the confidence of private investors in this sort of saving, not least in the interest of building up fully funded supplementary retirement pensions. We do not need statements of good conduct for this, but just clear and binding regulations underpinned by appropriate sanctions. The same applies to the Directive on financial conglomerates, which will most certainly take integration an important step further forward. If they are to remain competitive in the face of the globalisation and internationalisation of the finance markets, Europe's financial companies need to reposition themselves in the market, and the growing number of takeovers and mergers in this context demonstrates that this process is in full swing. This structural shakedown in order to create internationally competitive companies is certainly to be welcomed. However, it should not lead to a situation in which financial groups and conglomerates of this kind are increasingly no longer subject to the supervision that up to now has been organised at national level and in most Member States, even at sectoral level. Enron has generally highlighted the risks involved in multi-layered and inadequately supervised finance groups. The directive before us will create an important harmonised European legal basis for cooperation between supervisory authorities, and it will also prevent multiple gearing of own funds instruments within a group. In order to avoid excessive administrative burdens, we believe that we are right in calling for responsibility for the supervision of financial conglomerates and groups to be transferred to a single supervisory authority, which will be established on the basis of legally defined criteria. It is also especially important here that we have fortunately managed to reach a compromise with regard to the scope of the directive and also as regards multiple gearing of prudential capital, a compromise that my group also fully supports. IN THE CHAIR: MR PUERTAVice-President

Political group: PSE