Mr Kees van Dijkhuizen, Chairman of the FSC and Treasurer-General of The Netherlands Ministry of Finance, welcomed this first CESR progress report on supervisory convergence. The Council had on several occasions emphasised the need for supervisory convergence in the EU. He found this first report to be useful input for the FSC’s ongoing debate on the development of the EU financial regulatory and supervisory framework. Furthermore, regular reporting by CESR on results achieved would strengthen CESR’s accountability links with the Council and the other EU institutions.
Mr Arthur Docters Van Leeuwen, Chairman of CESR noted:
“CESR strongly welcomes the opportunity to present to members of the FSC, CESR’s Annual Report and a detailed report on its efforts to bring about supervisory convergence. Clearly, having nearly completed the ambitious review of Europe’s Financial Services Legislation brought about by the Financial Services Action Plan, the focus has now begun to shift towards implementing this new legislation on a day-to-day level in a convergent manner. CESR has a key role to play here which it takes very seriously. For this reason, we must be very realistic about what we can and cannot achieve. We therefore hope these reports will contribute and assist the Institutions in assessing practically where day-to-day convergence in supervisory practices across Europe is happening. It is CESR’s belief that the objective of confident, secure and liquid financial markets in Europe is possible if the role of supervisors is well understood and politically supported.”
The reports presented to the FSC, therefore reflect the willingness of CESR to further compliment its accountability beyond that required by the Commission’s Decision establishing CESR. The reports presented to the FSC also follow the recent visit by a delegation of Members of the European Parliament from the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), to discuss the work of CESR at its head quarters in Paris, on 31 March.
