During a vote in the European Parliament’s committee on economic affairs on a proposed quick fix to the so-called Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), the centre-left S&D party abstained. With this proposal, the European Commission aimed to make some amendments to the MiFID regime, in order to address the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and encourage investment in the real economy and free up resources for both firms and investors.
On this issue, Eero Heinäluoma, MEP and S&D negotiator on the file, said: “I am happy that the committee did not give a green light to start the trialogue negotiations. […] The S&D Group is not in favour of turning this quick fix into a deregulation exercise using the pretext of tackling the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Therefore, this negotiation was for us an exercise in damage control to prevent that some key provisions for investor protection were emptied of its substance. Indeed, for us it is critical that MiFID contains clear minimum product governance rules, which are there in the first place to protect investors who are far too often victims of misselling.”
Jonás Fernández, another MEP and S&D spokesperson on economic affairs, added that “[the S&D is] in favour of measures to support small and mid-caps to get better access to market finance. However, this should be done in a way which goes hand in hand with strong investor protection rules and full price transparency. We are not willing to be part of a deregulation agenda, under the pretext of addressing the impact of Covid-19.”
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