Summary record of the meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), held in Strasbourg on 13 December 2010

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Tekst

COUNCIL OFStrasbourg, 17 December 2010 THE EUROPEAN UNION 17804/10 PE 557 ECOFIN 833 FIN 735 NOTE from : General Secretariat of the Council

to : Delegations Subject : Summary record of the meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), held in Strasbourg on 13 December 2010 The meeting was chaired by Mr Stolojan (EPP, RO) and Mr García-Margallo y Marfil (EPP, ES).

  • 1. 
    Adoption of agenda The agenda was approved.
  • 2. 
    Approval of minutes of meeting of:

20 May 2010

15 September 2010

The minutes were approved.

Draftswoman: Ms Sophie Auconie (PPE)

Consideration of amendments

Mr Gauzès (EPP, FR), speaking on behalf of Ms Auconie (EPP, FR), informed the committee that there were 15 tabled amendments and that Mr Hökmark (EPP, SE) would propose an oral amendment on paragraph 4 regarding the clarification of the legal framework in order to safeguard the principle of subsidiarity. Ms in' t Veld (ALDE, NL) supported Mr Hökmark's oral amendment and expressed dissatisfaction at the slow pace of legal transposition of the Services Directive by several Member States. Mr Berman (S&D, NL) defended the right of Member States to regulate services of general interest. Mr Canfin (Greens/EFA, FR) agreed with all the amendments except the first one proposed by Ms in' t Veld on the objectives and scope of the Services Directive.

Mr Portas (GUE/NGL, PT) announced that the position of his group on the vote on the final text as amended would depend on the outcome of amendment 8 proposed by Mr Berman (S&D, NL) on the exclusion from the Services Directive of services of general interest as defined by Member States.

Vote at ECON: (see point 7 of the agenda)

  • 5. 
    Credit Rating Agencies: Future perspectives ECON/7/04338 Rapporteur: Mr Wolf Klinz (ALDE)

Consideration of draft report

Mr Klinz (ALDE, DE) explained that his report highlighted the global nature of credit-rating agencies and urged the Commission and the Member States to work on a global approach in order to maintain a level playing-field favouring a reduction of the over-reliance of the global financial regulatory system on credit ratings, and increasing the capacity and resources of supervisors to monitor, carry out assessments and provide oversight. At European level Mr Klinz advocated a strong cross-border role for the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) and proposed the creation of a fully independent European Credit-Rating Foundation (ECRaF), the establishment of a network of European credit-rating agencies and cooperation with national credit-rating agencies.

The rapporteur suggested increased disclosure and access to information to allow investors to make informed judgments, the revision of Directives 2003/71/EC and 2004/109/EC to ensure accurate and full information on structured finance instruments, the use of two obligatory ratings borne by the issuer, the accountability and liability of credit-rating agencies for their credit ratings and a lower degree of involvement of credit-rating agencies in sovereign debt evaluation.

In the subsequent debate, most of the suggestions made by Mr Klinz were accepted by the different political groups apart from the creation of the ECRaF and the methods of evaluating sovereign debt.

Mr Gauzès (EPP, FR), Mr Pitella (S&D, IT), Mr Portas (GUE/NGL, PT) and

Mr Giegold (Greens/EFA) favoured the creation of the ECRaF. Mr Pitella, Mr Mann (EPP, DE) and

Mr Portas proposed discussing the model best able to provide political and financial autonomy.

Mr Gauzès (EPP, FR), while understanding the need for an independent agency, questioned its precise nature. On the issue of sovereign debt ratings, Mr Gauzès noted that private rating agencies were entitled to evaluate public debt. Mr Pitella and Mr Portas disagreed, suggesting instead the use of public data and statistics and of internal models to assess sovereign credit risk by market players and investors.

Deadline for amendments: 15 January 2011.

*** Voting time ***

  • 6. 
    On establishing a permanent crisis mechanism to safeguard the financial stability

of the euro area ECON/7/04654 Adoption of motion for a resolution The motion for a resolution was approved by 36 votes in favour, 6 against and 1 abstention.

Draftsman: Ms Sophie Auconie (PPE)

Adoption of draft opinion

The draft opinion was approved by 36 votes in favour, 2 against and 3 abstentions.

*** End of vote ***

  • 8. 
    Short selling and certain aspects of credit default swaps ECON/7/03846 I 2010/0251(COD)

Rapporteur: Mr Pascal Canfin (Greens/EFA)

Consideration of draft report

Mr Canfin (Greens/EFA) told the committee that, by and large, he supported the Commission's suggestions in its new proposal on short selling and certain aspects of Credit Default Swaps (CDS).

He agreed with the proposals to cover a large range of financial instruments and to impose notification of significant short positions in shares, sovereign debt and CDS.

The rapporteur noted that the marking of short sales was the only way to monitor flows and was therefore complementary to the notification of positions at the end of the trading day.

He recommended that all orders should be marked in order to guarantee a level playing-field and favoured the limitation of all short sales to those based on previously borrowed securities or on securities on which the loan was guaranteed. Mr Canfin supported the proposals restricting the possibility of buying sovereign CDS to those actually owning the sovereign CDS, conferring extended powers on competent national authorities to react in adverse conditions, and the principle of granting exemptions to market-maker activities. Mr Canfin thought that the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) should be granted coordination powers and that it ought to adopt all guidelines for all measures that might lead to divergent interpretations by the competent national authorities. In his opinion, the powers conferred on ESMA in the Commission's proposal would ensure coherent implementation of emergency measures at EU level.

Mr Ferber (EPP, DE) did not see any added value in marking and, unlike Mr Goebbels (S&D, LU), disagreed with the rapporteur on the proposed restrictions on naked short selling because, according to him, it was not up to the European Union regulator to stop speculation. He was supported by

Mr Kamal (ECR, UK), who emphasised the benefits of all forms of short selling such as price discovery and warned of the adverse effects of restricting CDS, such as reducing the ability of Member States to obtain financing. Mr Schmidt (ALDE, SE) and Mr Ferber welcomed the suggestions to increase ESMA's role and to stimulate coordination between Member States.

Mr Händel (GUE/NGL, DE) expressed several reservations about Mr Candfin's report and found it difficult to support the rapporteur's suggestions.

The European Commission representative noted that the new proposal was intended to enhance transparency and the role of ESMA, and that the introduction of flagging was intended to safeguard the market. Finally, Mr Canfin indicated that the main objective of the new regulation was to provide quantitative and qualitative information to the regulator.

Deadline for amendments: 17 January 2011.

  • 15. 
    Date of next meeting The next meeting will take place in Brussels at 15:00 on Monday 10 January 2011.

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