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The European Commission has launched a consultation on possible amendments to Commission Decisions establishing the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR), the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS). The overall objective is to align, clarify and strengthen the responsibilities of the Committees of Supervisors and to ensure their contribution to supervisory cooperation and convergence at EU level, and to the safeguarding of financial stability. The consultative document invites comments on a non-exhaustive list of tasks that the Committees are expected to perform in these areas. Stakeholders are invited to comment on these issues by 18 July 2008.
Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: "The financial turmoil has shown that we need to upgrade the current supervisory architecture, by implementing a series of practical, incremental and result-oriented initiatives that will strengthen European supervisory and stability arrangements. Clarifying and reinforcing the role of the Committees of Supervisors by amending their constituting Decisions is a necessary step in this direction. It will lead to a more cost-effective supervisory framework and to better financial stability monitoring.”
The Committees of Supervisors, called Level 3 Committees, are composed of high-level representatives from Member States' supervisory authorities. They were established in 2001 in securities and in 2005 in banking and insurance as part of the Lamfalussy process[1].
Following the Commission Communication on the review of the Lamfalussy process of November 2007 (IP/07/1731) and the work carried out in this respect by the Inter-institutional Monitoring Group (IP/07/1495), in response to the invitation of the May ECOFIN Council, the Commission proposes to introduce greater coherence and consistency between the three Decisions that established CESR, CEBS and CEIOPS[2]. The Commission intends to set out a clearer framework for the activities of these Committees in the area of supervisory cooperation and convergence. To this end, it is proposed that the Decisions explicitly refer to the main tasks that the Committees of Supervisors are expected to perform. In addition, the Decisions should reflect the responsibility of the Committees for financial stability monitoring and regular reporting.
The consultative document suggests a range of tasks each Committee should be assigned and explains the underlying reasoning behind each.
Contributions should be sent by 18 July 2008 to:
All replies will be posted on the below website, unless authors specifically request otherwise. On the basis of the comments received, and after taking into account the positions of the ECOFIN Council, the European Parliament, the Committees of finance ministries representatives and the Committees of Supervisors, the Commission will proceed with the revision of the Decisions before the end of 2008.
The consultative document is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/finances/committees/index_en.htm#review
[1] The Lamfalussy process is a four-level, comitology-based regulatory approach for adoption, implementation and enforcement of legislation and implementing measures in the financial services area.
[2] Commission Decisions 2001/527/EC, 2004/5/EC and 2004/6/EC
