COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,update

 

Press material Wednesday, 27 March 2024

● Council of the EU   27/03/2024 12:58 | Press release | EU Court of Justice: three judges and two advocates-general appointed   The representatives of the governments of the member states today appointed three judges and two advocates-general to the Court of Justice. Mr Thomas von Danwitz and Ms Ineta Ziemele were re-appointed as judges and Mr Stéphane Gervasoni was appointed for a first term of office as judge of the Court of Justice. The Council also renewed the term of Mr Jean Richard de la Tour as advocate-general and appointed Mr Dean Spielmann for a first term of office as advocate-general of the Court of Justice. All the appointments were made as part of the partial renewal of the Court of Justice in 2024, for a term of office starting on 7 October 2024 and expiring on 6 October 2030. Background The Court of Justice of the European Union consists of two courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court. The judges and advocates-general are appointed by common accord of the governments of the member states after consultation of a panel responsible for giving an opinion on prospective candidates' suitability to perform the duties concerned. They are chosen from among individuals whose independence is beyond doubt. For appointment to the Court of Justice, candidates must possess the qualifications required for appointment, in their respective countries, to the highest judicial offices, or be jurisconsults of recognised competence.

Meetings Tuesday, 26 March 2024

● Council of the EU   26/03/2024 07:44 | Meetings | Main results - Agriculture and Fisheries Council, 26 March 2024   The Agriculture and Fisheries Council discussed the EU's response to the current concerns in the agricultural sector. The Council welcomed the recent initiatives and proposals made by the Commission and provided further political guidance on the next steps to be taken. Agriculture ministers also welcomed the approval by the Special Committee on Agriculture of the text of the proposal to amend certain parts of the CAP which will allow greater flexibility for complying with certain environmental and other requirements. Additionally, agriculture ministers received information from the Ukrainian Minister for Agrarian Policy and Food, Mykola Solskyi, and subsequently exchanged views on the market situation for agrifood products.

Press material Tuesday, 26 March 2024

● Council of the EU   26/03/2024 06:39 | Press release | Daisy Chains: Council adopts directive on indirect subscription chains   The Council today adopted a directive that amends the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive or (BRRD) and the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation or (SRMR) to include targeted proportionality requirements to the treatment of ‘internal MREL’ in bank resolution groups. The Daisy Chains directive sets out the concept and scope of liquidation entities and provides the conditions for the application of the consolidated treatment of ‘internal MREL’. Effective resolution The BRRD requires banks and other credit institutions established in the EU to meet a minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (‘MREL’) to ensure an effective and credible application of the bail-in tool. Failure to meet MREL may negatively impact institutions' loss absorption and recapitalisation capacity and, ultimately, the overall effectiveness of resolution. Where an MREL instrument is issued by a subsidiary within a banking group and directly or indirectly subscribed by its parent company, it is referred to as ‘internal MREL’. The intermediate subsidiary must deduct its holdings of internal MREL from its own funds to ensure the integrity and loss absorbency of the MREL instruments. New rules to avoid disproportionate effects After analysis, the Commission found that the application of the deduction requirement on internal MREL could have a disproportionate detrimental impact for certain banking group structures, namely those operating under a parent holding company and certain operating company structures. The new rules aim to give the resolution authorities the power of setting internal MREL on a consolidated basis subject to certain conditions. Where the resolution authority allows a banking group to apply such consolidated treatment, the intermediate subsidiaries will not be obliged to deduct their individual holdings of internal MREL, thus preventing the detrimental effect identified by the Commission. In addition, the new rules introduce a specific MREL treatment for ‘liquidation entities’. Those are defined as entities within a banking group earmarked for winding-up in accordance with insolvency laws, which would, therefore, not be subject to resolution action (conversion or write-down of MREL instruments). On this basis and as a rule, liquidation entities will not be obliged to comply with an MREL requirement, unless the resolution authority decides otherwise on a case-by-case basis for financial stability protection reasons. The own funds of these liquidation entities issued to the intermediate entities will not need to be deducted except when they represent a material share of the own funds and eligible liabilities of the intermediate entity. Next steps This is the last step of the adoption procedure. The text will now be published in the Official Journal and enter into force 20 days later.  Background On the 18 April the European Commission adopted a legislative package known as the reform of the Crisis Management and Deposit Insurance framework (‘CMDI’) setting out amendments to Directive 2014/59/EU (the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive or ‘BRRD’) and to Regulation (EU) No 806/2014 (the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation or ‘SRMR’). As part of the CMDI package the Commission also adopted a targeted amendment of the BRRD and of the SRMR as a separate legal instrument (the ‘Daisy Chains proposal’) to address specific issues on the treatment of ‘internal MREL’ The Council and Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the proposal on 6 December 2023. The Daisy Chains proposal, was presented as a self-standing legal instrument for the co-legislators to fast-track its adoption ahead of the remainder of the CMDI review proposals. Final text of the directive Voting results Commission proposal on BRRD Commission proposal on SRMR