Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-101"
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"en.20011115.5.4-101"2
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".
We have voted against the proposal for a regulation on cross-border payments in euro, which is designed to prevent banks from imposing charges, falsely giving the impression that such payments are free. This absurdity, which is motivated only by the desire to make people think that the euro itself removes all commissions on cross-border payments runs the risk of proving expensive for all of us in all kinds of unwanted ways.
Furthermore, this proposal is of very dubious legal value. Its legal basis is Article 95(1) of the EC Treaty, which deals with the establishment of the internal market. It should, therefore, apply in the same way to the fifteen members of the Union. It does not, however, because three Members of the Union are not part of the euro zone. Given these circumstances, it would probably have been more appropriate to make the regulation’s legal basis Article 123(4) of the EC Treaty (last phrase) concerning measures to adopt for the introduction of the euro, and does not, therefore, apply to the countries participating in the single currency.
Article 123(4), however, requires unanimous approval in Council, and Article 95 only requires a qualified majority. This is probably the factor that tipped the scales in making some countries less reticent.
It is nevertheless difficult to imagine the reality of the legal situation in countries that are not members of the euro zone, that are forced to pay a premium for cross-border transfers made out in a currency other than their own.
To this bizarre situation we can add the absence in the regulation of any article referring to possible sanctions against recalcitrant banks. Of course there is none, since the Community has no jurisdiction on this matter. The European Parliament has sought to close this loophole by voting for an amendment that calls on the Member States to define and adopt sanctions that will act as a “deterrent”, but this type of request has no legal force."@en1
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