Today, Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Commission, presented the proposal for a new Inter-Institutional Agreement between the European Commission, European Parliament and The European Council relating to the transparency register for lobbyists. Rapporteur for the Transparency Report of the European Parliament and Greens/EFA finance and economic spokesman Sven Giegold commented: “The European Commission’s […]
Launch of the “EU leaks” platform
Today, the inquiry committee investigating the Panama Papers held its first hearing. The committee is mandated to elucidate why banks, business lawyers, audit firms and other finance companies managed to build up a global network of letterbox companies without being punished. My intention is to uncover the firms that are involved in such dirty business […]
Revelations on Neelie Kroes: Outstanding negative example of corrupting trust in politics
Revelations on Neelie Kroes: Outstanding negative example of corrupting trust in politics A new investigation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reveals that former EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes has breached the EU Commission’s Code of Conduct by withholding information about her participation in an offshore company in the Bahamas. A whistleblower shared […]
Expert consultation: proportionality in banking regulation
Since the culmination of the financial crisis, more than 400 laws and implementing rules have been adopted or fundamentally revised. In particular smaller institutions and providers suffer from the quick introduction of so many new rules. During the legislative procedure we have achieved to take many special needs of smaller institutions into account. Ahead of […]
ITCO Press Statement: EP loses credibility by postponing transparency vot
The ITCO intergroup urgently calls on the EPP, S&D and ALDE groups to no longer block the vote on the transparency report, so the European Parliament can vote in favour of more transparency and integrity in the EU. A majority of EPP, S&D and ALDE blocked this week’s vote on the report on Transparency, Accountability […]
Financial Services: First corrective detention class for the Commission – European Parliament rejects rules for complex financial products (PRIIPs)
Currently, European Parliament, Commission and Council are in the course of implementing a crucial pillar of financial service regulation: the rules for a key information document (KID) for retail financial products, which European Parliament and Council adopted in 2014 under the regulation on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (“PRIIPs regulation”). […]