Publications Archive

The Best Practices Guidelines describe the course of action of European cartel and abuse proceedings (abuse of market power). With the proposed Guidelines the Commission wishes to enhance the transparency and predictability of these proceedings and to contribute to their smooth functioning.

The EU Commission is of the opinion that EU financial supervision needs to be adjusted. According to the Commission, particularly the system of national supervisory models is no longer capable of keeping pace with the challenges emerging from financial firms operating across borders. To this end, the Commission wishes to establish a European system of financial supervisors (ESFS) and a European systemic risk council (ESRC).

The financial crisis has led to a controversial public debate about bonus payments to staff members of the financial industry. The EU-Commission is responding by submitting a Recommendation which has public appeal but is legally non-binding and which is to be regarded above all as a political signal. However, for the banking sector the Commission announced that it would be proposing in June 2009 amendments to the Directive on capital requirements for banks (“Basel II”), which should allow the inclusion of remuneration practices into capital requirements for financial service providers.

The Commission outlines its strategy for health and safety at work 2014-2020. Accidents at work cause the deaths of 4,000 workers each year EU-wide and result in more than three million employees EU-wide being absent from work for more than three days every year.

The Regulation prohibits "proprietary trading" by larger banks and permits the banking regulators to prohibit "trading activities" so that the trading concerned is only carried out by companies which are separate from the bank.

The Commission wants to stimulate cross-border e-commerce in the EU by improving parcel delivery conditions.

The Commission criticizes the fact that – depending on their legal form and distribution channel – similar  retail investment products are subject to different rules. It wants to introduce the concept of “standard investment products”, to which identical selling rules and requirements on key investor information apply.

With its Communication the Commission is preparing the ground for a White Paper to be submitted next year on transport policy from 2010 to 2020. Since structural changes in transport policy require long-term implementation periods, the Commission is already planning for the period up till 2060.

Following the October 2008 amendments of the Capital Requirements Directive a new amendment has been proposed once again. This time the capital requirements for the trading book and for re-securitisations are raised and the remuneration models of banks are reviewed.

When Euro notes and coins were introduced on January 1st 2002, this created a single payments area for cash transactions. For cashless payments like credit transfers, direct debits and card payments a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is currently being developed. In its communication the Commission presents the next measures that have to be taken by market participants in the period from 2009-2012 in order to ensure successful implementation of the SEPA-project. The Commission hints that by this amongst others it understands the full replacement of all established national payment schemes with SEPA-Schemes.