Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-26-Speech-1-088"
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"en.20050926.14.1-088"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, it is for once no mere formality that I start by thanking my colleagues, the shadow rapporteurs and all members of the Committee for having made it possible for us all to work together on this directive in a constructive manner. I would also like to thank the Commission for working with us over recent years – for this draft did not come into being overnight – and enabling us to make progress. I see this as being, perhaps, a good example of how we can work together on making laws in the future.
This evening, I would like, at the outset, to point out a fly in the ointment. I agree with the Chairman of our Committee that we are engaged in making laws that will have far-reaching effects on Europe’s financial sector and small and medium-sized businesses, and, speaking on behalf of our President, I would remind you, Mr President, and the Bureau too, that this House possesses full legislative powers in this area. Perhaps you could look through the agendas for this week and find another subject, another position where we adopt acts under the codecision procedure, unless you really do think that everything we discuss this week is of high priority. I refer here also to the Doorn report, which also has to do with Parliament’s full legislative powers.
In dealing with this directive, Parliament has always emphasised that it is important to us that certain areas be made Basel-compatible. Basel is an international agreement. We have always seen the small business sector as important. It was always important to us that there should, in this regulatory framework, be special arrangements made for small banks, in order that they should not be squeezed out of the competition; take for example the partial application, or the demand in the report that banks opting in future for the Standardised Approach, should not be discriminated against by the national supervisory bodies. Another example I would give is that of the granularity agreed on in Basel and present in the Commission proposal, but which is absent from Parliament’s resolution and must not be re-inserted through the back door. I would point out that this needs also to be transposed by the national parliaments and incorporated into supervisory practice.
There are a number of new things in this directive that will change financial supervision in Europe, for example the Lead Supervisor System, under which one supervisor can overrule another when approving internal ratings, and which puts us on the way to a European market. Another example, and one on which there was a great deal of consensus in this House, was the disclosure of ratings, which is of particular importance to small and medium-sized businesses, and I am grateful to the Council for eventually accepting Parliament’s proposed compromise on this. There was lengthy discussion of intergroup exposures
I maintained from the very outset that banks’ internal loans should receive equal treatment based on the risks involved, for this document is about risk rather than competition. It is because different structures already exist in Europe that we should not prescribe structures for this, for we cannot say that one is better than another. We must, though, weigh up their merits. Here, too, we have come up with a compromise, and so we have achieved a good result as regards the substance. Comitology is a weak point and will remain one. I want to emphasise that the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs has always given the Lamfalussy procedure’s comitology its backing, believing this to be right and important in terms of quick legislation that meets the needs of the market, but we had always considered the former Lamfalussy agreement in the light of a future constitution, by providing for a callback mechanism. Today, we need no new debate on the Constitution, but if, in future, we come to draft more directives using Lamfalussy comitology, we will need to conclude a new agreement on the subject to secure Parliament’s rights by providing that, where we delegate them, we can also ‘call them back’, by which I mean better scrutiny, more options for definitions and also the general withdrawal of the delegated power if things start to go wrong.
As I will not be able to take the floor when we discuss the Doorn report, let me briefly say that there is one area that is excluded from its resolution. The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs will, though, in future, be responsible for the International Accounting Standards. As I see it, though, even if this is not what we decide tomorrow, this agreement should also include the international convention on accounting standards. It is not acceptable that, in the future, international bodies should define standards and that these should be implemented without scrutiny by this House. Let me just remind the House that we had a visit some time ago from some people from the Board of the IAS, who informed us that they were working on standards for SMEs. We will not – and I say this not least for the Commission’s benefit – accept these standards without the necessary scrutiny. I hope we are on the right track here, and, to the Presidency, I would say that I hope that it will take on board the compromises we have put forward today. I am optimistic, not only as regards the date for the sunset clause, but also as regards the recitals, about our chances of achieving a good compromise this week and that we will succeed in our aim of getting this adopted at first reading. What I hear from many Member States is that they are doing these things already, and I believe we are on the right track towards achieving this. It is down to the Council."@en1
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