WRITTEN QUESTION E-1873/03 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Listing requirements.
Date: 2003-06-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: access to information, administrative transparency, company law, corporate governance, dissemination of information, official market, securities, stock-exchange listing

C 78 E/392

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

The Union has no powers that would allow it to restrict the freedom of employers and workers to change
occupational pension arrangements. Community legislation only requires Member States: ‘to ensure that
the necessary measures are taken to protect the interests of employees and of persons having already left
the employer’s undertaking or business at the date of the onset of the employer’s insolvency in respect of
rights conferring on them immediate or prospective entitlement to old-age benefits, including survivors’
benefits, under supplementary company or inter-company pension schemes outside the national statutory
social security schemes.’
(Article 8 of Council Directive 80/987/EEC of 20 October 1980 on the
approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the protection of employees in the event of the
insolvency of their employer (1)). This does not prevent employers and workers to renegotiate pension
entitlements and their accrual.

As to the recently adopted Council Directive 2003/41/EC of 3 June 2003 on the activities and supervision
of institutions for occupational retirement provision (2),
it requires institutions to have sufficient and
appropriate assets to cover their technical provisions. The minimum amount of technical provisions must
be sufficient both for pensions and benefits already in payments and to reflect the commitments which
arise out of members’ accrued pension rights. The Directive, nevertheless, authorises Member States to
allow institutions to operate with some underfunding provided they adopt a concrete and reasonable
recovery plan to return to a level of full funding.

Member States will have 24 months after the publication in the Official Journal to adopt the laws,
regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive.

(1) OJ L 283, 28.10.1980.
(2) OJ L 235, 23.9.2003.

(2004/C 78 E/0415)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1873/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 June 2003)

Subject: Listing requirements

Has the Commission made any proposal, or does it intend to make any proposal, that will limit the ability
of Member States to legislate for higher corporate governance or transparency requirements than in EU
directives and regulations if companies are to be listed on exchanges in their territory? Similarly, does the
Commission propose or intend to propose any measure that would circumscribe the listing requirements
to be imposed on companies from third countries?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(7 July 2003)

The question raised by the Honourable Member is very similar to the one he already raised as Written
Question P-2561/02 (1).

The reply given by the Commission to that previous question is also fully applicable to the present one.
In addition, the Commission wishes to make the following remarks:

As regards corporate governance, the Communication on Company Law and Corporate Governance
adopted by the Commission on 21 May 2003 (2) outlines the approach that the Commission intends to
follow in these areas. It includes an Action Plan, prioritised over the short, medium and long term, without
pre-empting the approach that will be applied (cid:1) as a result of the consultation opened until 31 August
2003 (cid:1) to each initiative announced, this Action Plan concerns directly only European companies.

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/393

As regards transparency requirements, the Commission assumes that the Honourable Member refers to the
recent Commission proposal for a Directive on the harmonisation of transparency requirements with
regard to information about issuers whose securities admitted to trading on a regulated market in Member
States (3). This proposal covers requirements in relation to the disclosure of periodic and ongoing
information about such issuers. It would allow the issuer’s home Member State to impose more stringent
requirements in this respect, but not the host Member State. With regard to the majority of the bond
markets, and with regard to third country issuers of shares or bonds, the home Member State would be the
one where the company’s bonds are admitted to trading on a regulated market. For the remaining, the
home Member State will be the one where the issuer has its registered office, in practice very often the one
where the issuer’s securities are also admitted to trading on a regulated market. The proposal is currently
discussed in the Parliament and in the Council.

(1) OJ C 222 E, 18.9.2003, p. 10.
(2) COM(2003) 284 final.
(3) COM(2003) 138 final.

(2004/C 78 E/0416)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1882/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 June 2003)

Subject: Trade impact of euro

Will the Commission state the proportion of GDP of each Member State traded with euro and non-euro
EU Member States in each year for the last five years? Will it give the figures using trade in goods, trade in
services and trade in goods and services? Will it further as a memo item give the figure for investment
income broken down in the same way?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2003)

Table 1 (a, b) presents each Member State’s share of total imports and exports of goods as a percentage of
gross domestic product (GDP); this is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament’s
Secretariat.
figures for each individual Member State distinguish between trade with
eurozone, and trade with non-eurozone Member States respectively. Note that this trade data has been
obtained from Trade Statistics of New Cronos (Eurostat), where imports are calculated using c.i.f. (cost,
insurance & freight) values, i.e. figures are inclusive of transport and insurance costs.

In particular,

Balance of payments statistics are the only sources available for trade in services and income investment
figures, and are an alternative source for trade in goods. For goods and services, as stated in the reply by
the Commission to the Honourable Member’s written questions E-2464/02 (1), E-2465/02 (1) and E-1349/
03 (2), the data provided by Member States to the Commission (Eurostat) to compile the Balance of
Payments of the Union are based on a different methodology (principle of consignment) from that used by
Member States for compiling and publishing their national Balance of Payments (principle of origin).
In response to question E-1349/03, the Commission provided information on exports and imports of
services between each Member State and the EU15, including bilateral details for those countries for which
this information was available. EU15 aggregates are reproduced here in table 2 (a-d), sent direct to the
Honourable Member and to the Parliament’s Secretariat. Regarding investment
income, due to the
difficulties faced by Member States to correctly identify the residency of the holder of the securities, it may
not be possible to compile the corresponding payments providing a geographical breakdown (3).

The European Central Bank (ECB)
is responsible for producing and publishing aggregated balance of
payments figures for the eurozone. Euro area Member States transmit data on the contributions of the
euro area balance of payments to the ECB [i.e. extra euro area flows, as regards goods, services and
investment income], under the agreement that only the euro area aggregate would be made available to