Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-26-Speech-4-097"
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"en.20001026.3.4-097"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner Bolkenstein, the report that has been drafted with such professional skill by my colleague, Mrs Peijs, and which is now the subject of our discussion, is very important for consumers in the euro area and for confidence in the euro as a whole. Rarely in this House has there been such strong consensus on how important the report we are dealing with is. I share the concerns of those of my colleagues who have already spoken and agree with what they have said.
This morning the euro sank to an all-time low. It was quoted at 0.8240 against the US dollar. That is a new record. We therefore have much to do in this area but the political resources and remedies politicians possess to deal with that are fewer than those we are able to employ to resolve this problem of Internal Market payments. I also wish to thank the Commission for the fact that you have taken legal action against one hundred and twenty banks and banking associations as a result of suspicions over a cartel relating to payments charged for currency exchange in the euro area exchange rate. This is excellent work on the part of the Commission. On the other hand, I do also understand the point of view of the banks to some extent. Although we in the European Parliament now criticise the banks we have to understand that cross-border payments account for only a six-percent slice of all payment transactions, so development of this area is an expensive investment in the eyes of the banks in relation to the benefits gained, from the point of view of the banks at least. On the other hand, the largest item of expenditure in cross-border credit transfers is manual handling, and a decision should be taken quickly to dispense with that.
Just as Mrs Randzio-Plath said, we cannot order banks to reduce charges as a result of political decisions. What we can do is compel or put pressure on the European Central Bank to invite banks to attend immediately a meeting of a working party on standardisation at which decisions could be taken regarding the technical circumstances under which costs could be reduced. We cannot force banks to engage in unprofitable business, but, as politicians, what we can do is support the amendment tabled by Mr Radwan and Mrs Peijs, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group, which calls for measures to be implemented before the end of next year, and, preferably, for these standards to be in place when the euro coins and notes come into circulation."@en1
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