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(2004/C 88 E/0217)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0763/04

by José García-Margallo y Marfil (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(11 March 2004)

Subject:   Role of the public authorities in the follow-up period to the financial services action plan

In the Commission's planned follow-up to its financial services action plan, the public authorities and national governments in particular will play a key role in implementing the provisions of the various directives, in particular the level 2 directives.

Are the structures currently in place, and in particular the national supervisory and regulatory committees, adequate to achieve the objective set by the Lamfalussy process of flexible and uniform implementation of the technical provisions of the directives?

Do these structures not need be strengthened and, if so, how?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(28 April 2004)

With the recent agreement by EU institutions to extend the new financial services committee structure to banking, insurance and occupational pensions and UCITS, the structures in place will ensure flexible and uniform implementation of the technical provisions of Directives.

The Lamfalussy Report defined the role of the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) under Level 3: one of CESR's main tasks is to assist in the convergent interpretation and implementation by national authorities of both Level 1 and Level 2 legislation.

In this context, CESR's tasks are:

Along these lines, the CESR — in coordination with parallel Commission action — is about to organise ad-hoc meetings to discuss potential problems with regard to the Market Abuse Directive (1).

CESR, when preparing guidelines or its Level 2 advice to the Commission for the elaboration of Level 2 legislation, tries to reach solutions acceptable to all Members. The Commission considers that this process can contribute to ensure convergence among national authorities, transposing and applying EU legislation.

In banking and insurance, the new Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) have recently begun their work. They will play a critical role in the uniform application of new legislation such as new Capital Adequacy (CAD III) and Solvency II Directives.

The CEBS has adopted an ambitious work programme to ensure convergence of supervisory practices in key aspects of the future capital adequacy framework, e. g. on the validation of internal measurement approaches for credit risk and operational risk, and on the supervisory review process leading to the fine-tuning of individual capital requirements.

The Commission will work with all supervisory committees to ensure the implementation of best practices.

In any event, it has to be borne in mind that the Commission, as part of its institutional role as a ‘guardian of the EC Treaty’ is responsible for controlling the transposition and monitoring of good quality implementation by the Member States. The Commission can provide interpretative tools and contacts to facilitate implementation, ensure good quality transposition and avoid infringement procedures before the European Court of Justice — this is also part of Level 4 in the context of the Lamfalussy process.

A number of initiatives have been launched in the context of the European Securities Committee (for instance the establishment of contact points for the implementation of each ‘Lamfalussy Directive’) as well as a series of meetings scheduled to provide interpretative tools to facilitate the implementation of the Market Abuse and Prospectus Directives (2). CESR actions can complement the Commission's determination to improve implementation and enforcement.

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(1)  Directive 2003/6/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on insider dealing and market manipulation (market abuse), OJ L 96, 12.4.2003.

(2)  Directive 2003/71/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading and amending Directive 2001/34/EC, OJ L 345, 31.12.2003.

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