56 Amendments of Sharon BOWLES related to 2013/2166(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 24 a (new)
Citation 24 a (new)
– having regard to the 2 February 2011 letter from the ECON Chair to the ECOFIN President and to the Commissioner in charge of the Internal Market on the independence of the ESAs and to the 2 February 2011 response from the ECOFIN President and to the 3 February 2011 response from Commission Vice-President Sefcovic and Commissioner Barnier.
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 24 b (new)
Citation 24 b (new)
– having regard to the statement by the ECOFIN Presidency at the 2 February 2011 plenary sitting on the independence of the ESAs;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 24 c (new)
Citation 24 c (new)
– having regard to the Commission's statement at the 2 February 2013 plenary sitting on open dialogue and transparency about our planning for forthcoming technical standards.
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the establishment of the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) has significantly enhanced the quality and consistency of financial supervision in the internal market; whereas this is an evolutionary process that should become less centred on Member States' individual interests in the Supervisory Boards;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the ESAs as system managers are tasked with convergence and assisting in raising the quality of day to day supervision, and such improvement will not necessarily result from routine compliance with detailed rules, there is a need for the ESAs to develop performance indicators that focus on the regulatory outcomes achieved in day to day supervision;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas in respect of regulatory technical standards (RTS) or implementing technical standards (ITS) the Commission has the responsibility to adopt with or without amendment the draft RTS or ITS proposed by an ESA, but should provide detailed reasons for departing from the draft RTS or ITS; where the Commission does amend them it should first undertake its own cost- benefit analysis and publish the results to ensure that standards of good regulation are maintained, or where it departs from the ESAs' draft for legal reasons publish that legal advice;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas experience has shown that there is little substantive difference in practice between Delegated Acts which may only supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of the legislative acts, and regulatory technical standards which, in addition, may not imply strategic decisions or policy choices, it should therefore be for the co-legislators to decide whether subordinate legislation should take the form of delegated acts or regulatory technical standards on the basis of who it thinks is best placed to draft them in each circumstance; notes that when the Parliament proposed RTS it envisaged maximum use of a "straight through" process given that the ESAs have greater technical expertise to draft subordinate legislation. Further, RTS are also legally subject to cost-benefit analysis and consultation;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas paragraph 2 of the Common Understanding between Parliament, the Council and the Commission on delegated acts states that the three institutions shall cooperate throughout the procedure leading to the adoption of delegated acts with a view to a smooth exercise of delegated powers and an effective control of this power by Parliament and the Council;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) was an important next step towards coherent supervision of banks in the Eurozone and other participating Member States;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the structure of the ESRB and the size of its decision-making body hinders a swift decision-making process and the membership of the ESRB is strongly based around central banks which have an important role but also have similar perspectives;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas legislation relating to financial markets, financial services and financial products is highlyoften fragmented and the multitude of legal texts can causes loopholes, duplication of reporting obligations and regulatory overlap; the ESAs should work in cooperation in the Joint Committee to identify ways to reduce overlap in their mandates in order to streamline and enhance the overall supervision process and also to make recommendations for clustering revisions and reviews of legislation to enable greater coherence;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas the three different locations of the seats of the ESAs haves not proven to be an obstacle to their cooperation and to coherent supervision in the Union; any adjustment to the seat is a political signal;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Ja. whereas transparency is an important ingredient of good governance; noting that the Commission is involved formally and informally in the operations of the ESAs, such involvement should be placed on a transparent basis, and its role be aligned with that of the Parliament and the Council, so that the independence of the ESAs is not called into question;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J b (new)
Recital J b (new)
Jb. whereas the ESAs should support the Commission by making their expertise in financial services available in a transparent way; the ESAs should assist the Commission and the co-legislators by assessing the extent to which legislation is meeting its regulatory objectives, and in the interests of transparency should make that assessment public. The ESAs should provide formal opinions on proposed Union legislation and assess the strength of the evidence and analysis contained in impact assessments of legislative proposal;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas the ECB and the ESAs have different reporting standards and intervals and the creation of the SSM poses a serroles and standards of reporting of the ECB and other competent authorities is coordinated via CRD IV, the EBA and provisiouns risk ofin the SSM; duplication of reporting requirements; should be avoided but this must not jeopardise information required by either the SSM or the EBA.
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas in case of a breach of Union law by a competent authority, the ESAs must act in accordance with the powers set out in the ESAs regulations; whereas the right of investigation against possible breaches of Union law has seldom been used but must be used in its full capacity when appropriate;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas the possibility of binding mediation has seldom been used but must be used in its full capacity when appropriate;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas the ESAs refrain from certain necessary requests for information in anticipation of a rejection in their Boards of Supervisorsrecently agreed legislation has enhanced the powers of the ESAs to investigate alleged breaches or non- application of Union law obliging competent authorities to provide the relevant ESA with all information which is considered necessary, including how the legislation is applied in accordance with Union law;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S a (new)
Recital S a (new)
Sa. whereas the ESAs independence is undermined by the fact that participants within the Boards of Supervisors often represent national interests as a first priority.
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S b (new)
Recital S b (new)
Sb. whereas there should be no age or gender discrimination in the appointment of Chairpersons, a position that should be widely advertised across the Union;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S c (new)
Recital S c (new)
Sc. whereas the Chair, Executive Director and the members of the Board of Supervisors and management boards should be in a position to act independently and only in the interest of the Union. Only if the members of the Board of Supervisors act independently and in the Union's interest will the European framework envisaged by the Regulations be given effect. This is also necessary to allow the Senior Executives – approved by the European Parliament – to act in the same manner;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U
Recital U
U. whereas the ESAs are limited in fulfilling their mandate by a lack of resources, staff and flexibility in recruiting; available resources must reflect the tasks required to be carried out;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U a (new)
Recital U a (new)
Ua. whereas the ESAs have been unable to devote sufficient resources to the core function of undertaking economic analyses of financial markets (as prescribed by article 8(1)(g) of Regulations 1093/2010, 1094/2010, and 1095/2010), which is an essential foundation for drafting high quality rules; the ESAs are encouraged to improve their analytical capabilities by requiring them to assist DG Comp in its investigations into anti-competitive market practices;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital X
Recital X
X. whereas the ESAs have only very limited possibilities to initiate investigations within the Member Stateinto alleged breaches of law by national competent authorities; nonetheless, the ESAs must use these possibilities to the maximum extent and must take due notice of all petitions and requests;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Y
Recital Y
Y. whereas in the field of consumer protection, the efforts, deployed resources and results of the ESAs differed and were considerably low atone of the main areas of responsibility of the EFSF is the protection of consumers but it is noted that conduct under the auspices of ESMA is the most relevant for consumer protection and covers the conduct of institutions that have prudential regulation by EIOPA and EBA;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Y a (new)
Recital Y a (new)
Ya. whereas consumer detriment may arise from misselling or from inadequate competition and rent seeking behaviour, the ESAs should address such detriment by identifying cross country differences in prices, and by highlighting such dominant positions or anti-competitive practices and market structures, and should assist DG Comp in its investigations, and report annually on their findings;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital AA
Recital AA
AA. whereas some members of the ESAs in the Boards of Supervisors took decisions on consumer protection issues without having a mandateresponsibility for it in their home Member State which may question their expertise;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital AB
Recital AB
AB. whereas the principle of fiscal safeguards appears in BRRD and SRM and in the EFTA Court Judgement of 2012 regarding DGS, therefore the current safeguard clauses in Article 38(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, of Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010, and of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010, limit the possibilities for mediation pursuant to Articles 18 and 19 thereof, in particular in cases of cross- border group resolution under [the bank recovery and resolution directive]should remain;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Considers that the Commission, before adopting regulatory technical standards, should take note of the timetable for Parliament to exercise its scrutiny rights, and should avoid adopting such standards at a point in time where Parliament's scrutiny period is reduced to less than two months, including the extension of the scrutiny period as provided for in the relevant provisions of the ESAs regulations.
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Considers that the Commission and, where relevant, the ESAs should be expected to provide a timely response to comments from Members on draft regulatory technical standards, in particular where the views expressed by Members are not reflected in the regulatory technical standards adopted by the Commission.
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Considers that the ESAs, when dealing with a breach of Union Law, should be able to gather all the relevant information from Member States;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Considers that there must be strong guarantees that the Chair, Executive Director and the members of the Board of Supervisors and management boards are in a position to act independently and only in the interest of the Union.
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 e (new)
Paragraph 3 e (new)
3e. Considers that Member States must ensure that the representatives sent to the Board of Supervisors conform to the legal requirements of the Regulation.
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 f (new)
Paragraph 3 f (new)
3f. Considers it essential that gender balance be actively pursued within the framework of the selection procedures; considers that it is essential to ensure that the process is transparent and is planned in a way that allows the European Parliament to exercise its role in such proceedings
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 g (new)
Paragraph 3 g (new)
3g. Considers that an ESA chairperson should be selected solely on the basis of merit, skills, knowledge of financial institutions and markets, and of experience relevant to financial supervision and regulation; considers that the pool of potential candidates should not be limited by excessively rigid interpretations of administrative provisions; considers that it is essential to address the salary structure and to abolish the age limit for the appointment of Chairpersons.
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 1 – indent 1
Annex – paragraph 1 – indent 1
– Enhance the mandate for the all ESAs for binding and non-binding mediation especially with regard to the ECB and delete Recital 32 which is misleading on the mandate for non-binding mediation;
Amendment 157 #
– Establish the ESRB outside the ECB to avoid the arising conflicts of interest between micro-prudential supervision and macro-economic oversight and choose own Chair. The role of the scientific committee should be enlarged as a counter-balance to the central banks and membership should be actively sought from beyond the usual applicants for Brussels advertised positions and beyond the world of financial mathematics and economics.
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 1
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 1
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 1 a (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 1 a (new)
– ensuring in their day to day operations the ESAs are independent of the Commission;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 5
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 5
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 7
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 7
– enhancing the investigatory powers of the ESAs and, increasing their resources in order to control the appropriate implementation of legal acts for example by ‘mystery shopping’and raise Europe's standing in financial regulation at the global level through deeper participation in international regulatory discussions;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 1 – indent 8
Annex – paragraph 1 – indent 8
– withdrawing the right toenabling an informed vote on questions concerning consumer protection for members of the Board of Supervisors which do not have a mandateresponsibility for consumer protection in their Member State through the participation of expert supervisors;
Amendment 281 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 17
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 17
– providing for the mandatory involvement of the ESAs and of the ESRB in legislative processes concerning their fields of expertise; in particular, the ESAs should work in cooperation to reduce overlap in their mandates and to make recommendations for clustering revisions and reviews of legislation to enable stronger coherence and a streamlined approach;
Amendment 292 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 a (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 a (new)
– when drafting a regulatory technical standard or an implementing technical standard the ESAs shall assess the impact such a standard may have on competition and forward this assessment to DG Comp; DG Comp may request the ESAs to assist it in its investigations of anti-competitive market structures or market practices in the area of financial services;
Amendment 293 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 b (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 b (new)
– the ESAs should identify price differences across Member States and analyse particular markets where rent seeking behaviour may be evident and report annually on their findings;
Amendment 294 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 c (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 c (new)
– enhancing the contribution of stakeholder groups through more intensive integration into the work of the ESAs;
Amendment 295 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 d (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 d (new)
– the ESAs should develop indicators of performance that would assess the extent to which day to day supervision is achieving its regulatory outcomes;
Amendment 296 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 e (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 e (new)
– where the Commission departs from a draft RTS or ITS or advice on Delegated Acts or Implementing Acts, it should publish its reasons and undertake a cost- benefit analysis of its revised rules. Where it deviates from such RTS, ITS or advice on Delegated Acts or Implementing Acts for legal reasons, it shall publish that legal advice;
Amendment 297 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 f (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 f (new)
– the ESAs should assess the extent to which existing Union legislation meets its regulatory objectives and should publish that assessment. The ESAs should provide formal opinions on proposed Union legislation and assess the strength of the evidence and analysis contained in impact assessments of legislative proposals;
Amendment 298 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 g (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 – indent 20 g (new)
– the ESA regulations should be amended so that the scope of Regulatory Technical Standards and Regulatory Implementing Standards is identical to that of Delegated Acts and Implementing Acts, thereby indicating an amendment to Recital 22 and Article 10(1)(2nd paragraph) and Article 15(1) of Regulations 1093/2010, 1094/2010, and 1095/2010;
Amendment 299 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 a – introductory part (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 a – introductory part (new)
The ESAs regulations should be amended in a way that they incorporate the following principles, making full use of the EU hierarchy of norms:
Amendment 300 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 1 (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 1 (new)
– in case of breach of law, the ESAs should be able adopt an opinion where it considers additional information illustrating the transposition of the relevant EU legal acts is needed in order for them to carry out their tasks; in such cases the ESAs should notify any such opinion to the Commission and the Member State concerned without delay; Member States should provide the Commission and the Authority with such explanations as are necessary to illustrate the transposition of the legal acts concerned for the purposes of effectively assessing implementation;
Amendment 301 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 2 (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 2 (new)
– as regards the adoption of regulatory technical standards, the ESAs regulations should include provisions to the effect that the Commission must take due note of the timetable for Parliament to exercise its scrutiny rights, and should avoid adopting such standards at a point in time where Parliament’s scrutiny period is reduced to less than two months, including the extension of the scrutiny period as provided for in the relevant provisions of the ESAs regulations; the updated provisions should ensure that the Commission and, where relevant, the ESAs provide a timely response to comments from Members on draft regulatory technical standards, in particular where the views expressed by Members are not reflected in the regulatory technical standards adopted by the Commission;
Amendment 302 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 3 (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 3 (new)
– as regards the Chair, the Executive Director and Members of the Board of Supervisors and management boards, the ESAs regulations should include reinforced provisions to guarantee that such persons are in a position to act independently and only in the interest of the Union;
Amendment 303 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 4 (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 4 (new)
– as regards the representatives that are sent by Member States to the Board of Supervisors, the ESAs regulations should include additional procedural guarantees ensuring that the representatives sent to the Board of Supervisors conform to the legal requirements of the Regulation;
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 5 (new)
Annex – paragraph 2 a – indent 5 (new)