WRITTEN QUESTION E-1345/02 by Elspeth Attwooll (ELDR) to the Commission. Contributions to the UNHCR.
Date: 2002-05-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, UNHCR, aid policy, aid to refugees, interinstitutional relations

3.7.2003

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Official Journal of the European Union

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Furthermore, investor protection would be enhanced by the CESR standards, with a positive impact on
consumer confidence, particularly for those services conducted on-line.

3.
Article 11 of the ISD obliges investment firms to know their customers, with particular regard to
their knowledge and experience in the investment field, investment objectives and financial situation. This
principle applies to any investment service. It is a basic principle of securities regulation that intermediaries
should be required to provide services in the best interests of their clients.

In addition to the general ‘know your customer’ standard, CESR has adopted a specific rule on the duty of
care that investment firms have to comply with when providing execution-only services. This proposal
consists of a light-touch regime based on the definition of an appropriate service to the customer,
including investment parameters on the basis of information collected from customers. Information to be
required at the outset of the client relationship concerns notably knowledge and experience in the
investment field, financial situation, investment objectives and risk profile, which are needed to estimate
the investment parameters within which investors can trade. When transactions for customers fall within
these parameters they do not require on-going duty of care by the investment firm. Suitability is conducted
at the level of the service at the onset of the relationship, instead of being conducted for each and every
transaction.

CESR’s standards for ‘know your customer’ and duty of care have been carefully considered as a basis for
allowing execution-only brokers to meet obligations incumbent on them under the existing ISD, without
calling into question their business model. These requirements have been broadly accepted by a large
majority of brokers across the Union and correspond to existing commercial practice for many brokers.

4.
The Commission has recently published the revised orientations on the upgrading of the ISD and has
launched a second round of open consultation. By conducting the revision of the ISD on the basis of the
Lamfalussy procedure, the Commission intends to introduce high-level principles of regulation in the
revised directive (level 1) and detailed rules at level 2, adopted under the comitology procedure.

The Commission, at present, has not introduced any regulation of execution-only business. This might
become subject to regulation under the revision of the ISD, particularly under level 2, with the adoption of
detailed implementing measures. Before finalising its position, the Commission is waiting for the results of
the public consultation, due to end on 31 May 2002.

(2003/C 155 E/003)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1345/02

by Elspeth Attwooll (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 May 2002)

Subject: Contributions to the UNHCR

What have been the annual contributions of the European Union to the budget of the UNHCR since 1990?
Could the Commission justify the trends that these figures demonstrate?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(2 August 2002)

As Parliament is aware, centralised data on the Commission’s funding of the United Nations (UN) and its
agencies began to be assembled directly by the Commission services from the year 2001. In the meantime,
and to ensure the compatibility of figures, those sent to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s
Secretariat are taken from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sources. They
illustrate the extent to which the Commission has sought to fulfil
its mission to provide relief and
rehabilitation to refugees and internally displaced people in humanitarian crises over the last decade.
A number of such urgent situations arose in the early 1990s as reflected in the data supplied. These

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situations, notably the Yugoslav and African Great Lakes crises, were of extraordinary magnitude in terms
of the number of refugees and people displaced. The number of conflicts and natural disasters returned to
an average level towards the end of the last decade. More recently, the trend has once again been upwards.

The UNHCR has a recognised mandate to co-ordinate the assistance provided by the donors of the
international community in humanitarian crises involving large-scale population movements. For the
Commission, it is important to support those efforts through a constant and open dialogue with the
UNHCR. As for the assistance provided for people in need, the Commission has to ensure that the funds
are channelled as cost-effectively as possible. This sometimes involves funding through the UNHCR, which
in turn subcontracts important aspects of the implementation of their assistance to international non-
governmental organisations (NGOs) who distribute the aid to the people in need. On other occasions, the
Commission directly supports international NGOs present in the field.

The Commission is currently working to improve its partnership with the various United Nations agencies,
funds and programmes. The aim is to establish more effective long-term co-operation which is both
financially predictable and transparent. This is being done through the implementation of the Commission
Communication entitled ‘Building an effective partnership with the United Nations in the fields of
development and humanitarian assistance’ (1). The Commission will soon take further steps towards
deciding on UN agencies, funds and programmes as ‘strategic partners’. The Parliament and Member States
will naturally be kept fully informed.

(1) COM(2001) 231 final.

(2003/C 155 E/004)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1562/02

by Richard Corbett (PSE) to the Commission

(3 June 2002)

Subject: Cost of non-Europe

A recent study by the European Financial Services Round Table, quoted in the Financial Times on
22 April, concluded that the absence of a completed Europe-wide market for financial products was
costing consumers and investors up to EUR 15 billion per year.

Does the Commission consider that it would be opportune to undertake and publish a new study into the
‘costs of non-Europe’, as it did in 1986?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(5 July 2002)

In 1988, the European economic model used in the original Cecchini report evaluated the potential benefit
of the liberalisation of financial services as 1,5 % of the Community’s 12 Member States gross domestic
(GDP) out of a total of 4,5 % to be reached after the completion of the Internal Market
product
programme.

The report of the European financial services round table, quoted in the Financial Times on 22 April 2002,
focused on the substantial potential benefits of an integrated retail market for financial services in Europe
in terms of consumer gains and macro-economic growth. It concluded that closer integration of the
European financial services might create additional economic growth of at least 0,5 % per year which
represents EUR 43 billion per year. It also showed that, despite a number of legislative decisions already
made, much remains to be done. In particular in the field of securities markets and financial services, the
Community markets still remain fragmented.