Parliament backs EU payments proposal

STRASBOURG: MEPs voted on Tuesday to back an agreement on reducing the cost and speeding up the pace of cross-border payments in the EU.

The vote followed a debate on Monday night which saw almost universal support for the agreement thrashed out by the EU finance ministers last month.

Rapporteur Jean-Paul Gauzès gave his full support to the position taken by member states, which removes the final legal obstacle to the creation of a single European payments area (SEPA), due to see the light of day next year.

“The compromise text approved by parliament is certainly not perfect, but it does at least establish a solid base for a single market in payment services,” he said.

“The text has a political aspect too, as it should help strengthen the relationship between consumers and service providers and contribute to the Lisbon strategy through improved transparency, better competition, lower costs and improved efficiency.”

MEPs voted overwhelmingly to back the position already agreed by member states, with one additional amendment from Pervenche Bérès, chair of the financial affairs committee.

She called for greater data protection to be enshrined in the new proposals to avoid a repetition of the Swift fiasco, which saw confidential personal data transferred by the Belgian company to the US administration as part of its investigation into the funding of terrorists.

The vote was welcomed by the European commission and the European central bank in a joint statement, calling it “a decisive step towards the realisation of the SEPA”.

“This will provide the foundation for a single ‘domestic’ euro payments market,” they said in a joint statement.

The bank and the commission said that the ball was now firmly in the court of the banking industry to ensure that SEPA becomes a reality.

“We urge the banking industry and all other stakeholders to maintain momentum and intensify preparation for the launch of SEPA by 1 January 2008, and for its subsequent successful and timely implementation,” the statement said.

Peter Ayliffe, president and CEO of Visa Europe, said “demonstrates that EU legislators strongly support the payment industry’s SEPA project”.

“As a strong believer in the benefits a truly internal market in payments would bring, I would have hoped for a greater level of harmonisation. However, I am pleased that an agreement was found and we can now continue our work towards making SEPA a reality.”

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