Solvency II News: Barnier – “Strong commitment to avoiding further delays”

Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, says that the Commission is confident there would be no further delays to the adoption of the Solvency II Delegated Acts, planned for this summer. “All parties involved know that the Delegated Acts need to be in force by March 2015 to enable application of Solvency II in January 2016, and all are showing strong commitment to avoiding further delays,” Mr Barnier told Solvency II Wire in a written interview. Mr Barnier said that the adoption of the Delegated Acts was the next milestone in the process. Work on finalising the text is still ongoing and the Commission plans to present the Delegated Acts to the Council and the Parliament in the summer. This will be followed by an objection period of three months (plus a possible further three months) during which the parties can either accept or reject the entire text. “We are confident that this process will involve no further delays, as we are in the process of finalising the text which has been discussed extensively with the Member States and with Parliament representatives,” Mr Barnier said. Commenting on the relationship between the trilogue parties and the impact of the upcoming European Elections, Mr Barnier noted the increasing interaction between the three institutions, especially in the run up to last autumn’s Omnibus II trilogue negotiations. “The delegated acts are being drafted with the aim of stabilising the political agreement. We must of course be very careful not to shift the balance reached in the Omnibus II agreement,” Mr Barnier, said. In the interview Mr Barnier also discusses the causes of the delays to Omnibus II, the challenges of tackling the complexities of the Long-Term Guarantees and industry lobbying. To read the full interview click here. — To subscribe to the Solvency II Wire mailing list for free click here.]]>