Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (codified version)'
25. 5. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 157/13 Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (codified version)’ (98/C 157/03) On 9 March 1998 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal. The Section for Industry, Commerce, Crafts and Services, which was responsible for preparing the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 4 March 1998. The rapporteur was Mr Pelletier. At its 353rd plenary session (meeting of 25 March 1998), the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 96 votes to one, with four abstentions. 1. Introduction 2. Scope of codification 1. 1. On 1 April 1987 the Commission decided to instruct its staff to codify all legislative measures after no more than ten amendments. 1. 2. The Conclusions of the Presidency of the Edin- burgh European Council in December 1992 confirmed this, stressing the importance of legislative codification, which must be undertaken in full compliance with the normal Community legislative procedure. Given that no changes of substance may be made 1. 3. to the instruments affected by legislative codification, Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed, by an interinstitutional agreement dated 20 December 1994, that an accelerated procedure might be used for the fast-track adoption of codification instruments. The Economic and Social Committee can only 1. 4. welcome the effort to achieve transparency and accessi- bility through codification. The various directives con- cerned by the codification project have been substantially amended on several occasions. It was therefore necessary for the sake of clarity and coherence to codify these directives by integrating them in a single text. Moreover, these texts will be the references for the candidate countries when they transpose the acquis communautai- re into their national laws. The present codification proposal concerns the 2. 1. following basic directives: — 73/183/EEC: Abolition of restrictions on freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services in respect of self-employed activities of banks and other financial institutions; — 77/780/EEC: First banking directive; — 89/299/EEC: Own funds of credit institutions; — 89/646/EEC: Second banking directive; — 89/647/EEC: Solvency ratio for credit institutions; — 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis; — 92/121/EEC: Monitoring and control of large exposures of credit institutions. It also concerns the following amending direc- 2. 2. tives: 2. 2. 1. D i r e c t i v e 7 7 / 7 8 0 / E E C — F i r s t b a n k i n g d i r e c t i v e — 85/345/EEC: Special provisions for Greece; — 86/137/EEC: Deferred application for certain Mem- ber States; — 89/646/EEC: Second banking directive; — 95/26/EEC: ‘Post BCCI’ (1) prudential supervision; — 96/13/EEC: Permanent exclusion of certain credit institutions. 1. 5. This exercise completes the communications examined by the Economic and Social Committee with the aim of clarifying the scope of the directives. (1) BCCI: Bank of Credit and Commerce International. C 157/14 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 25. 5. 98 2. 2. 2. D i r e c t i v e f u n d s 8 9 / 2 9 9 / E E C — O w n — 91/633/EEC: Treatment of funds for general banking risks (FGBR); — 92/16/EEC: Special provisions for mortgage credit institutions; 2. 3. It is desirable that the picture be completed in the near future by taking into account the following directives adopted on credit institutions, listed by order of priority: — 93/6/EEC: on the capital adequacy of investment firms and credit institutions; — 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a — 94/19/EC: on deposit-guarantee schemes; consolidated basis. 2. 2. 3. D i r e c t i v e 8 9 / 6 4 6 / E E C — S e c o n d b a n k i n g d i r e c t i v e ; — 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis; — 95/26/EEC: ‘Post BCCI’ prudential supervision. 2. 2. 4. D i r e c t i v e 8 9 / 6 4 7 / E E C — S o l v e n c y r a t i o — 91/31/EEC: Definition of multilateral development banks; — 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis; — 94/7/EC: Definition of multilateral development banks; — 95/15/EC: Technical definition of ‘Zone A’; — 95/67/EC: Definition of multilateral development banks; — 96/10/EC: Contractual netting. Brussels, 25 March 1998. — 91/308/EEC: on prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering; — 86/635/EEC: on the annual accounts and consoli- dated accounts of banks and other financial insti- tutions; — 89/117/EEC: on the obligations of branches estab- lished in a Member State of credit institutions and financial institutions having their head offices outside that Member State regarding the publication of annual accounting documents. 2. 3. 1. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the legal limi- tations of the codification procedure (no amendment of substance and incorporation of the law as it stands), it would without doubt be desirable to urge the Com- mission to consider a recasting of the texts in force in the future. This would be a more flexible and more effective method. 2. 3. 2. As the codified texts would be of use to countries seeking EU membership, it is essential that this codification project be adopted as rapidly as possible. The President of the Economic and Social Committee Tom JENKINS