MEPs fear weakened role over fast-track laws

Date: 21/12/00

By Tim Jones

MEPs are voicing scepticism about plans to bypass the European Parliament's standard scrutiny procedures with an avalanche of banking, insurance and stock market legislation.

They fear that the proposed fast-track passage of 20 laws designed to create a single EU capital market by 2005 would strengthen the hand of ministers and weaken Parliament's role.

"We have to be very careful since there is a risk of creating a precedent," said one insider. "This is a major part of Parliament's institutional rights as co-legislators."

At stake is the central recommendation of a report published last month by a committee of 'wise men' chaired by retired Belgian central banker Alexandre Lamfalussy. Worried that the EU could not approve all the laws necessary within five years, he called for a four-level regulatory system.

Level one would be'broad framework principles' implemented locally; level two would, from 2002, delegate implementation and any changes needed to a new securities committee; level three would rely on cooperation between national regulators; and level four on European Commission oversight.

MEPs on the Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee are worried about the implications of level-two legislation, which would side-step democratically accountable politicians. Their biggest gripe until now has been the secretive economic and financial com-mittee, which advises ministers.

German Socialist MEP Christa Randio-Plath, chairwoman of the economic and monetary affairs committee, will meet the Lamfalussy group next month to explore ways of squaring the circle. She outlined her initial views last week to Swedish Finance Minister Bosse Ringholm, who will guide financial services decision-making until next summer.

"The model proposed by Lamfalussy is like that practised in Sweden: setting parameters and then leaving technical details for a lower level," said a Swedish official. "The trick is to make decision-making more efficient and less time-consuming but not de facto less influence for the Parliament."

MEPs are voicing scepticism about plans to bypass the European Parliament's standard scrutiny procedures with an avalanche of banking, insurance and stock market legislation. They fear that the proposed fast-track passage of 20 laws designed to create a single EU capital market by 2005 would strengthen the hand of minisiters and weaken Parliament's role.