Litouwen laat prestaties voorzitterschap op vorming bankenunie zien aan Europees Parlement (en)

Lithuanian Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius has presented the achievements of the Lithuanian Presidency i on the Banking Union, financial services and taxation dossiers to the members of Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee of the European  iParliament. Members of the Committee assessed the Presidency as record-breaking in the number of finalized legislative dossiers.

“The Lithuanian Presidency has put all our efforts to make as much progress as possible on many dossiers over the past six months. We have achieved much; we also expect more results in the coming days. I greatly appreciate the professional and productive partnership with the ECON Committee. Our greatest challenge remains the agreement on the Single Resolution Mechanism. We will do our best to reach it on Wednesday,” said Minister Šadžius.

In the development of the Banking Union, the Council under the Lithuanian Presidency has approved legislation setting up the Single Supervisory Mechanism and has reached the political agreement with the European Parliament on the Bank Recovery and Resolution directive. A similar agreement on the Deposit Guarantee Schemes, which aims to improve the protection of depositor’s savings, is expected in the coming days.

The Lithuanian Presidency will strive to reach an agreement on Single Resolution Mechanism during the ECOFIN meeting on December 18 in Brussels.

More broadly, in the financial services area, the Lithuanian Presidency reached the agreement with the European Parliament on the “Omnibus II” directive (it enables the “Solvency II” framework, which will come into force from 2016 and is a major overhaul of the EU insurance regulatory framework).

Significant progress was reached in the negotiations with the European Parliament on the Central Securities Depositories regulation (CSDR) and on the revised rules for markets in Financial instruments (MiFID/MiFIR). Intensive work on these files is continuing, with the aim of reaching an agreement by the end of the Lithuanian Presidency.

The Presidency also achieved the Council agreement on the Directive on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS V), amending the current legislation on the harmonised functioning of collective investment funds and aimed at strengthening investors’ confidence.

The negotiations in the Council on the Payment Accounts Directive (PAD) are also approaching conclusion. This Directive will enhance consumer protection in the banking sector and remove the obstacles to a fully integrated internal market for retail banking.

In the area of the EU economic governance, the Lithuanian Presidency produced a report on “lessons learned” from 2013 European semester suggesting concrete recommendations on how to further enhance the process. It also facilitated the smooth implementation of the “two-pack” legislation with the euro area Member States submitting for the first time their draft budgetary plans and ECOFIN Council adopting opinions on Economic partnership programmes of those Member States that are under excessive deficit procedure. The Presidency also marked the ECOFIN Council making contributions to European Council on the elements of a more effective Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).

In the field of taxation, the Lithuanian Presidency concentrated its efforts on the EU input to the continuing work of the OECD i aimed at developing a global standard for the exchange of information. The Presidency also intensified discussions in the Council on how best to stop tax bases being eroded or profits unduly shifted. Political discussions in the ECOFIN Council were also facilitated in view of reaching agreement on Savings taxation directive as soon as possible.

Progress at the technical level has been made on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, Energy Taxation Directive and VAT on vouchers. Further work at the technical level has been carried out on the Financial Transaction Tax.