- In its July plenary, the European Parliament elected the next Commission President and the members who will sit on the Parliament’s committees and subcommittees in the tenth legislature.
- Finance Finland is pleased that the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) will have five Finnish members in the next term. ECON is one of the most important committees in financial sector policy.
- Finnish members elected in the committee were Eero Heinäluoma (S&D), Aura Salla (PPE) and Jussi Saramo (The Left).
- Katri Kulmuni (Renew) and Maria Ohisalo (Verts/ALE) were elected as substitute members.
- The ECON Committee is responsible for matters concerning the Union’s economic policy, financial services regulation and supervision, for example.
Finance Finland’s CEO Arno Ahosniemi is pleased that so many Finnish MEPs showed interest in the ECON Committee, which decides on many important financial sector issues. Five Finnish MEPs secured seats in the committee: Eero Heinäluoma (Social Democrats/S&D), Aura Salla (National Coalition Party/EPP) and Jussi Saramo (Left Alliance/The Left) were elected as members, and Katri Kulmuni (Centre Party/Renew) and Maria Ohisalo (The Greens/Verts/ALE) as substitutes.
“The matters submitted to ECON have direct relevance for EU economic policy, financial services regulation and supervision. Having multiple seats in the committee gives Finland leverage to influence European economic policy”, says Ahosniemi.
The views of Heinäluoma, Salla and Saramo hold weight when the committee discusses proposals pertaining to the capital markets union and the competitiveness of the European financial markets, for example.
“ECON gives the Finnish MEPs a prime opportunity to promote the EU’s capital markets. We hope they are now well placed to highlight the national specificities and needs of the Finnish economy during the legislative process.”
Valuable political guidelines from President-elect von der Leyen
Prior to being elected for a second mandate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented her political guidelines for the Commission’s next term. In her plenary speech, Von der Leyen made several valuable points relevant for the financial sector, for example concerning the simplification of legislation and the development of EU capital markets.
“Before issuing new regulation, we must assess whether the same aims could be reached by improving existing regulation or enhancing implementation. Regulatory reviews should not be pushed before there is enough experience of how existing regulation functions”, Ahosniemi points out.
Ahosniemi also commends von der Leyen’s directions concerning the development of the capital markets union.
“The diversity of private funding and the movement of capital must be guaranteed. The development of functioning and versatile capital markets must be primarily market-driven.”
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