Shortly after the adoption of the Commission's work programme 2015, an interview with Commissioner Hill conducted by Bloomberg was published earlier today, December 17.
If you have been following the latest financial news, you might have stumbled upon articles decrying the intention to scrap the structural banking reform, as suggested in Hill’s letter to Timmermans. Fortunately, the final list of envisioned withdrawals annexed to the work programme 2015 does not mention this very important piece of legislation.
Some have been hit by the news. The European Banking Federation has issued a press release to utter its disappointment over the fact that the European Commission withheld the proposal.
In today’s interview, Hill confirmed his commitment to press on with this piece of legislation, while acknowledging it might be difficult to align the positions of all 28 member states. “I’m sure it will be the case, as it always is, that finding the landing zone is not going to be straightforward,” Hill said. And while there might be MEPs who are very passionate about this proposal, e.g. Lamberts, the European Parliament as a whole has been rather languid. The ECB suggests tweaking the proposal to avoid harming activities which actually enhance the demand-supply situation in securities such as stocks and futures & options (see market making).
“The sensible thing is for me to first of all work out exactly where I think we can find a possibility for a compromise and then work out my tactics with others for helping to deliver it,” said Hill. “I’m going to take it forward and I want to try and do that quickly.”