EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 84/330

(2004/C 84 E/0388)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0191/04

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(29 January 2004)

Subject: Financial collapse of Parmalat: protecting savers and setting up a supervisory body

The financial collapse of the multinational Parmalat is an unprecedented and very serious episode for Italy that has embroiled thousands of Italian small investors (approximately 80 000 bond holders and 40 000 shareholders) and which could potentially damage financial credibility and lead to a general lack of trust in our country in the future, not least amongst foreign investors.

Sources of information have indicated that one of the main causes of this financial collapse was the certification of false and misleading accounts of Parmalat by a leading auditor, Deloitte & Touche, who apparently hid the true nature of the company's balance of assets. Furthermore, press reports indicate that the competent national authorities, Banca d'Italia and Consob, also failed to carry out effective controls, despite having been informed of all the dubious activities of Parmalat in the past.

The press further reports that the case has led to the involvement of a number of Italian credit institutions, such as Capitalia, Banca Intesa, Monte dei Paschi, San Paolo Imi, Unicredit and Bnl, along with a number of European banking institutions, including some of the leading institutions on the world's financial markets, such as Deutsche Bank, these institutions having issued an uncontrolled number of non-reimbursable bonds.

For all these reasons, the Parmalat affair has been called the ‘European Enron’, although in reality it is more serious than the American scandal, as America's GDP is far greater than Italy's.

The Commission:

1. What steps does it consider can be taken to protect the savers involved?

2. What instruments can be adopted to avoid further activities of this type in future and to limit as far as possible savers' exposure to them?

3. Does not the Commission think it possible to set up a supervisory and control body at European level (a kind of European SEC) with power of inspection and sanction, under the direct control of the ECB, able to verify the effectiveness and transparency of the stock market so as to provide the best protection for investors?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(11 March 2004)

The Commission does not comment on ongoing legal procedures. As the investigation is still in progress, it is too early to draw any final conclusions from this complex case.

The Financial Services Action Plan contains a number of measures which specifically aim at improving investor protection throughout the Union. A number of measures provided for in this Action Plan (such as the Regulation 1606/2002/EC of 14 September 2002 on the adoption of international accounting standards (1), Directive 2003/6/EC of 28 January 2003 on insider dealing and market manipulation (2) and Directive 2003/71/EC of 4 November 2003 concerning the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading (3)) have been adopted recently by the European Parliament and the Council. Other measures (such as the Proposal for a Directive on the harmonisation of transparency requirements with regard to information about issues whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market) are in an advanced stage of negotiation. Furthermore, in its Communications of 21 May 2003 on Modernising Company Law and Enhancing Corporate Governance in the EU and on Reinforcing the statutory audit in the EU, the Commission has listed a number of initiatives which it intends to take in order to improve corporate governance and the quality of the statutory audit. Following the Parmalat case, the Commission intends to accelerate some of the proposals contained in these Communications.

Although these various measures, once they have been implemented by Member States, will not prevent corporate failures in the future, they will make it more difficult for such failures to happen, thereby contributing to the protection of investors.

As far as the supervision of capital markets is concerned, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) was officially established by Commission Decision in June 2001. The role of CESR is to improve coordination among European Securities Regulators, to act as an advisory group to assist the Commission, in particular in its preparation of draft implementing measures in the field of securities regulation and to work to ensure more consistent and timely day to day implementation of Community legislation in the Member States. It is not the task of the European Central Bank (ECB) to supervise securities markets. Likewise, recently two new committees in the banking: the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and insurance: the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) fields have been set by the Commission to enhance European regulatory cooperation, and to provide advice to the Commission.

(1) OJ L 243, 11.9.2002.

(2) OJ L 96, 12.4.2003.

(3) OJ L 345, 31.12.2003.