Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, within the EEA Joint Committee concerning amendments to Annex IX (Financial Services) to the EEA Agreement

In order to ensure the requisite legal security and homogeneity of the Internal Market, the EEA Joint Committee is to integrate all the relevant EU legislation into the Agreement on European Economic Area (EEA Agreement) as soon as possible after its adoption.

The nine draft Decisions of the EEA Joint Committee (annexed to the proposed Council Decision) aim at amending Annex IX (Financial services) to the EEA Agreement in order to incorporate notably the Regulations on the European Supervisory Authorities (EU ESAs) (Regulations (EU) 1093/2010, 1094/2010 and 1095/2010) into this Agreement, but also a number of other Union acts pertaining to the financial sector.

The different acts included in this first package have in common that they all give either decision-making powers to the EU ESAs or they are linked to acts that contain such provisions. In view of the constitutional impossibility for some of the EEA EFTA States (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) to accept that the EU ESAs make decisions that are binding for their competent authorities and market operators, a specific solution had to be found.

Incorporation of this legislative package follows the political agreement reached by the EU and EEA EFTA Ministers of Finance and Economy on 14 October 2014 at the margins of the ECOFIN meeting. In accordance with the two-pillar structure of the EEA Agreement, the EFTA Surveillance Authority will make decisions addressed to EEA EFTA competent authorities and to market operators in the EEA EFTA States.

The EU ESAs will be competent to perform actions of a non-binding nature, such as adoption of recommendations and non-binding mediation, also vis-à-vis EEA EFTA competent authorities. Action on either side will be preceded by, as appropriate, consultation, coordination, or exchange of information between the EU ESAs and the EFTA Surveillance Authority.

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)319: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:319:FIN

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