The proposed pensions directive is the most important part of the EC plan for a single market for financial services by 2005, said Jean-Claude Thébault of the EC at the EFRP/NAPF conference inBrussels.
Thébault noted that the signs of success were not very encouraging, pointing out that the mid-term point to the deadline of 2005 was close. In addition, he urged countries to look beyond their national interests.
He praised Austrian MEP Othmar Karas for the part he had played in pushing the report through the European Parliament in a very short time.
On the question of investment and taxation, he said the Parliament was more liberal than the Commission.
“It (the Parliament’s position) was going a little too far in the Commission’s view when you consider that the supervision levels vary widely between member states,” he said. The Commission had also rejected other amendments from the European Parliament.
Thébault added that the Belgian government, which took over the European presidency in July, had not given the same priority to pensions issues.
The current pensions situation, he said, reminded him of earlier days during the construction of the single market, with the abolition of barriers seen as a threat to national interests.
Addressing Bolkestein’s call for mutual recognition on the regulatory side, he argued that the approach was floundering, and a consequence of: “narrow and sometimes personal interests” in the Council.



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