WRITTEN QUESTION E-3604/01 by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Integration of settlement systems.
Date: 2002-01-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: financial legislation, financial market, financial transaction, free movement of capital

C 172 E/96

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.7.2002

(2002/C 172 E/098)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3604/01

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Integration of settlement systems

Financial experts have criticised the inefficiency of European clearing and settlement systems, although
they have recommended that the initiative to modernise the systems be left to the markets.

Nevertheless, the time appears to have come to put an end to the fragmentation of a structure which is
essential in order to integrate financial markets, given that it provides the framework for confirming the
terms of a transaction, defining the obligations of each party to the operation, transferring the subject of
the transaction to the purchaser and transferring the payment to the seller.

When,
in the Commission’s view, should the corresponding initiative be taken, which is currently
necessary in order to remove the fiscal and regulatory barriers hindering the consolidation of the sector on
the basis of three or four clearing systems?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(25 February 2002)

The Commission shares the view that without efficient, cost-effective clearing and settlement systems in
Europe, the full benefit of an integrated financial market in Europe cannot be realised. In line with the
conclusions of the Report of the Committee of Wise Men on the Regulation of Securities Markets, the
Commission believes that the market should have the main role in shaping the outcome.

However, the Commission will produce a Communication on the subject of clearing and settlement in the
next few months. This paper will set out Commission policy with respect to these important systems. It
will take the form of a consultation document and will seek input from interested parties into the process
of deciding whether and if so how the public authorities can most usefully intervene to assist in the
establishment of a more efficient clearing and settlement landscape in the Community in the future.

The Giovannini Group of financial market experts will also be producing a further report on this subject
later in the year.

(2002/C 172 E/099)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3611/01

by Jannis Sakellariou (PSE) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Lloyd’s of London

The European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions is currently considering several petitions relating to the
Lloyd’s case.

1.
Can the Commission indicate the date on which, as Commissioner Bolkestein promised in the
summer of 2001, it will take a decision in this connection on the conformity of British legislation with
Directive 73/239/EEC (1)? If it has already taken that decision, to what conclusion did the Commission
come?

Can the Commission further indicate whether members of the Committee on Petitions will have

2.
unrestricted access to the answers to the questionnaire addressed to the British Government?

(1) OJ L 228, 16.8.1973, p. 3.