Commission Decision of 20 July 2010 setting up a Financial Services User Group

21.7.2010 EN Official Journal of the European Union C 199/12
COMMISSION DECISION
of 20 July 2010
setting up a Financial Services User Group
2010/C 199/02
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Whereas:
(1) One of the main objectives of the Union is to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market, of which financial services are an essential part.
(2) In accordance with the better regulation principles, the Commission attaches great importance to ensuring proportionate user representation at all stages of the development of its policy on financial services. For this purpose, the Commission needs to call upon the expertise of specialists in an advisory body.
(3) The Commission Communication of 4 March 2009‘Driving European recovery’ (1) stated that the Commission will ensure that the voice of European investors is much more strongly heard on all financial issues.
(4) In 2004 the Commission services established a forum of financial services users (FIN-USE) in order to secure expert input from the user perspective into the European Commission’s financial services policymaking so that a more active and informed involvement of users could be achieved. The second three-year term of this group will come to an end in June 2010.
(5) In 2006 the Commission services established the Financial Services Consumer Group (FSCG) as a sub-group of the existing European Consumer Consultative Group (ECCG) with the aim of bringing together representatives of consumer organisations from each of the Member States in order to discuss financial services policies and proposals of particular relevance to consumers. Its initial three-year term came to an end in November 2009.
(6) FIN-USE has played an important role in conveying the perspective of users of financial services by providing quality advice to the Commission. FIN-USE members have also engaged in dialogues with a number of stakeholders, contributing usefully to disseminating the views of users of financial services and thereby improving the overall quality of the decision-making process.
(7) The FSCG has been a useful channel of communication with national and European consumer associations and has drawn attention to specific problems of concern to consumers.
(8) There is a need to further coordinate the input of financial services users and to increase the capacity of consumers and retail investors, that is natural persons investing outside their trade, business or profession, to contribute to its initiatives in this area. This decision has been taken in the light of the experience acquired by the Commission as regards the operation of FIN-USE and the FSCG; the external evaluations of the workings of both bodies, and the relevance of EU financial services policies to the lives of citizens.
(9) It is therefore necessary to set up a group of financial services users and to define its tasks, composition and structure in a formal legal act.
(10) The group should be composed of financial services experts such as individuals appointed to represent the interests of consumers, retail investors or micro-enterprises, but also individual experts having particular expertise in users’ needs and priorities in the field of financial services, for example lawyers representing consumers, employee or worker representatives or academics. The group should represent an adequate geographical coverage within the Union.
(11) The group should assist the Commission in the preparation and monitoring of financial services policies having a potential impact on users of financial services. The group should secure high quality expert input to the Commission’s financial services initiatives from representatives of financial services users and from individual financial services experts.
(12) With a view to achieving the aims of further coordinating the input of financial services users and increasing the capacity of consumers, retail investors and micro-enterprises to contribute to its financial services initiatives, it is appropriate to provide adequate financial support to the group, in the form of annual fees for its members, reimbursement of travel and accommodation expenses, and a designated budget for research.
(13) Having regard to the need to attract the best expertise in the very complex field of financial services among stakeholders who are not financial sector professionals, and having regard to the remuneration of members of comparable bodies at national level and the annual fees of FIN-USE and their periodic revision, the members of the group should receive an annual fee to ensure that they are adequately resourced to provide the required substantial input to the Commission, consisting of a workload of approximately 35 days, in addition to their participation in the meetings of the group.
(14) Considering that external research might be necessary to enable members to fulfil the tasks of the group, the Commission may grant, upon request from the group, a research budget for that purpose if it considers such request justified.
(15) Rules on disclosure of information by members of the group should be laid down, without prejudice to the rules on security annexed to the Commission’s Rules of Procedure by Decision 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom (2).
(16) Personal data relating to members of the group should be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (3),