SEPA Instruments: the EPC Rejects Intervention of the Commission
- On the occasion of its annual report, the EPC protested against the role taken by the European Commission in the standardisation of payment instruments. The EPC, representing the banks and likewise institutions, criticises the “delegated rights” in favour of the Commission created by the SEPA Regulation proposal.
- In fact, the Commission added a set of specifications to its project for direct debits and credit transfers in euros. They reproduce a large portion of the SCT and SDD Rulebooks. It also allows itself to amend these “technical requirements” with later regulations, if need be, by the way of such “delegated rights”.
- The financial profession considers this as excessive intrusion in the minutiae of the SEPA project. It would disturb the consensus reached by the EPC to build the new standards and would cause more uncertainties.
- During the International Payments Summit, held in London mid-March 2011, the Commission and the ECB gave an update on the adoption of the SEPA migration end-dates proposal. Elmer Tertak, DG Internal Market & Financial Institutions Director, announced that in the Parliament, the ECOFIN Committee would vote in June and that the adoption in plenary session would take place in September. The Union’s Council of Minister organised workshops gathering all Member States on several occasions, their third meeting was held 22 March. To this point, most of the issues are still debated: migration period length, a unique deadline, interchange interdiction, technical requirements contents, span of the “delegated powers” to the Commission, etc.
- The provision of delegated powers to the Commission derives from the European founding treaties. In order to avoid repeating long legal procedures for simple text adaptations, the Commission can benefit from a delegation of power. It must be limited to adapting the essence of a Regulation or a Directive to new circumstances. “Technical progress and market evolutions” are mentioned here. The Parliament or the Council, to which all decisions made by virtue of these powers are notified, have three months to repeal them. They can also revoke this delegation any time.
See December 2010 Watch