Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-30-Speech-1-061"
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"en.20030630.9.1-061"2
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"Mr President, I very much welcome the prospectus directive that is before us. Its importance lies in its regulation of the issue of European Passports for the prospectuses, which will enable securities to be marketed right across the European Union’s internal market. If a prospectus is authorised by a competent national authority, this authorisation will, as we know, be valid in all other Member States. This means that the European Passport will save the issuers a lot of expense and administrative effort.
As I have already said, this directive is one of the most important components of the Commission’s action plan, which aims to establish an internal market in the area of financial services. In December 2002, the Commission estimated that the creation of an efficient internal market in securities would result in a 1.1% growth in gross domestic product. I hope they are right in saying this, as we could all do with a spurt of growth under present circumstances.
The recommendation for second reading, as presented to plenary, is a fine document. I would like to express my congratulations to the rapporteur, Mr Huhne, as the text improves two important aspects of the Common Position about which I am personally concerned. One is that this text allows the issuers, from a denomination per unit of EUR 1 000 and upwards, to choose, when it comes to the approval of the prospectus, between, firstly, the competent authority of the Member State in which the issuer’s registered office is situated; secondly, that of the Member State in which the securities are authorised to be traded on a regulated market; or, thirdly, that of the Member State in which the securities are offered to the public. Having EUR 1 000 as the denomination per unit is far more realistic than the threshold value of EUR 5 000 estimated by the Council, as it will be small investors that will have a particular interest in it. So I am very much in favour of this and hope that it will not be watered down still further. I am given to understand that it still stands even after the compromise with the Council.
Secondly, this text allows the competent authorities to delegate the examination of the prospectus to other bodies possessing the necessary expertise. In small Member States in particular – both present and future ones – the tradition is that prospectuses are examined by the stock exchanges. Responsibility remains, of course with the competent state authorities, whilst stock exchanges do have the necessary highly-qualified staff. In Luxembourg, we had great difficulties finding experts with Luxembourg nationality, as the officials of the supervisory authorities have to be Luxembourg nationals, so I am glad that this delegation does not lapse after five years, but will be checked by the Commission to see if it still works. Rather than sharing Mrs Berès’ view, I am convinced that this examination will not produce adverse judgments; we will not end up, after eight years, with a delegation of this sort becoming inevitably impossible.
I very much want to underline once more how significant this directive is, and I am glad that Commissioner Bolkestein has told us that he can go along with the twenty-one compromise amendments on which the rapporteur and the Commission have agreed. I would again like to thank Mr Huhne most warmly for the work he has done, which has been of real value, and for his sympathetic attitude, particularly to the concerns that I raised and which, it is to be hoped, will soon be dealt with in the way I have described. If that happens, we will soon have a proper directive, one that will be of great importance to the smooth functioning of the internal market."@en1
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