The SMSG facilitates consultation between ESMA and its key financial market stakeholders and it can flag inconsistent applications of European Union (EU) law as well as inconsistent supervisory practices in Member States. The SMSG is composed of 30 individuals who represent the interests of different categories of financial market stakeholders. The new SMSG is a result of the changes made to the group’s composition brought about by the review of ESMA’s founding regulation.

Steven Maijoor, Chair, said:

“The new SMSG starts its mandate in a decisive period for ESMA as it takes on board new powers and responsibilities following the ESAs review. In the coming years, ESMA will be working on new policy areas related to the Capital Markets Union, sustainable finance and financial innovation and will look to the SMSG for input regarding the potential impact of policies and regulatory activities on the EU’s financial markets and their users.

“The broad geographical representation, and the diverse professional backgrounds, of the SMSG members will ensure that all relevant voices from across the European Union are heard.

“I would like to thank the outgoing SMSG members for their dedication and contributions and I look forward to working with their successors.”

List of Member of Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group

The successful candidates were selected from a field of 130 eligible applicants. The following individuals will make up the SMSG for four years commencing on 1 July 2020:

Consumers Representatives

·         Morten Bruun Pedersen, (DK) Senior Economist at the Danish Consumer Council;

·         Jasper De Meyer, (BE) Financial Services Officer, BEUC, European Consumer Organisation;

·         Dermott Jewell, (IE) Policy and Council Advisor, Consumers’ Association of Ireland;

·         Martha Oberndorfer, (AT) Member of the Advisory Council, Austrian Shareholder Association;

·         Guillaume Prache, (FR/BE) Managing Director, Better Finance;

·         Christian Martin Stiefmueller, (AT) Senior Adviser, Research & Advocacy, Finance Watch AISBL.

Users of Financial Services

·         Geoffrey Bezzina, (MT), Chairman (in executive role), Board of Management and Administration, Office of the Arbiter for Financial Services;

·         Lubomir Christov, (BG), Advisor to the Bulgarian National Association “Active Consumers”;

·         Christiane Hölz, (DE) Managing Director, Deutsche Schutzvereinigung für Wertpapierbesitz (DSW);

·         Sari Lounasmeri, (FI) Chief Executive Officer, Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion.

Financial Market Participants

·         Henning Bergmann (DE), Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board, Deutscher Derivate Verband (German Derivatives Association);

·         Florence Bindelle (BE), Secretary General, EuropeanIssuers AISBL;

·         Urban Funered, (SE), Chief Executive Officer, Swedish Securities Markets Association;

·         Ivana Gažić (HR) President of the Management Board, Zagreb Stock Exchange;

·         Adina Gurau Audibert, (FR/RO) Head Asset Management, Association Française de la Gestion Financière (AFG);

·         Eric Litvack, (FR) Managing Director, Société Générale;

·         Rainer Riess, (DE) Director General, Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) AISBL;

·         Virginie Saade (FR/UK), Head of Government and Regulatory Policy for Europe, Citadel Enterprise Europe Limited;

·         Ignacio Santillán, (ES) Chief Executive Officer, Spanish Investors Compensation Scheme for investment firms (FOGAIN);

·         Martin Scheck, (CH/UK) Chief Executive and Member of the Board, International Capital Market Association (ICMA);

·         Alexander Schindler, (DE) Executive Board Member, Union Asset Management Holding AG;

·         Jean-Marc Servat, (FR) Chair, European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT);

·         Tanguy van de Werve (BE) Director General, European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).

Employee Representatives

·         Chris Vervliet (BE), Deputy Secretary & Member of Select Committee European Works Council, KBC Asset Management; member, UNI Europa Finance.

Small and Medium Enterprises

·         Piotr Biernacki, (PL), Vice President of the Management Board, Stowarzyszenie Emitentów Gieldowych (Polish Association of Listed Companies);

·         Stjepan Mandic, (HR), Founder and Managing Director, Concepto Ltd.

Academics

·         Barbara Alemanni, (IT), Full professor of financial markets and institutions, University of Genoa and affiliate professor,SDA Bocconi School of Management;

·         Emilios Avgouleas (EL), Professor of Law and Finance,  University of Edinburgh;

·         Veerle Colaert, (BE) Professor of Financial Law, KU Leuven University;

·         Giovanni Petrella, (IT) Professor of Banking, Università Cattolica, Milano.

News

June 16, 2020 About the EUIPO

Overview of CJ/GC Case-Law (Status: 01/01/2019 – 30/04/2020)

The Litigation Service of EUIPO has prepared an Overview of the Court of Justice (CJ) and the General Court (GC) Case-law: a systematic compilation of key points of judgments/orders rendered by the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union on actions against decisions of the EUIPO’s Boards of Appeal and in preliminary rulings on IP rights between 1 January 2019 and 30 April 2020.

The hyperlinks in the case reference lead to the Office’s eSearch Case Law database, with access to the full text of the judgment/order and available translations, its summary and any relevant information and documents.

Overview of CJ/GC Case-Law (Status: 01/01/2019 – 30/04/2020)

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• Green recovery: part of the funds will go to investments promoting climate action.
• The project is supported by the Investment Plan for Europe.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is joining forces with Banco Sabadell to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – the businesses most affected by the economic impact of COVID-19. With this goal in mind, the EIB Group – via the European Investment Fund (EIF), its subsidiary specialising in venture capital for SMEs – has granted Banco Sabadell a €96 million guarantee for a loan securitisation portfolio, which will enable the Spanish bank to increase its lending capacity to offer €576 million in financing for the projects of Spanish companies, primarily the self-employed, SMEs and mid-caps.

The agreement includes a commitment to direct part of the new Banco Sabadell financing to investments promoting climate action, which is key to a green recovery following the pandemic. In concrete terms, the financing will go to projects focusing on improving companies’ energy efficiency, driving renewable energies, refurbishing commercial buildings to reduce energy use, and investments for purchasing low-emissions commercial vehicles and agricultural equipment with low fuel consumption and a major environmentally friendly element.

The agreement was signed under the Investment Plan for Europe. Its support enables the EIB Group to expand its capacity to finance investment projects that have a higher risk profile owing to their structure or nature. Estimates indicate that this operation will make it possible to support over 1 400 companies employing around 79 000 people.  Unicredit has provided advisory services for this financing transaction.

EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro, who is responsible for the EU bank’s operations in Spain, stated: “Supporting SMEs and promoting green investments are both key elements of the EIB Group’s response to drive the economic recovery following the coronavirus. This is why we are delighted to sign this new agreement with Sabadell, which will enable us to pass the advantages of our financing on to Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises at an extraordinarily difficult time while also fostering the development of clean projects contributing to the transition towards a low-carbon economy.”

European Commission Executive Vice-President for an Economy that Works for People Valdis Dombrovskis highlighted the following: “The European Commission and the European Investment Bank Group are working together to support the economic recovery following the coronavirus crisis. The more we protect businesses and jobs now, the faster the rebound will be. In addition to support for SMEs, I am pleased to see that part of the financing will go to green projects such as renewable energy and the retrofitting of commercial buildings to reduce their energy use. The European Green Deal must be at the heart of our recovery strategy.”

General Manager of Sabadell Spain Carlos Ventura welcomed the agreement: “The time has come for companies to regain the momentum lost after the economic shutdown and make a real commitment to a sustainable economy, making this agreement with the EIB a very important tool for the recovery process. We are very happy to have a long-standing partnership with this institution, as it benefits the economy of our country.” Ventura also highlighted the diverse beneficiaries of these credit lines: “We are providing liquidity to sectors as diverse as agriculture, commercial vehicles and new, innovative companies.”

EIB response to COVID-19

The EIB Group is playing a key role in directly combating COVID-19 by supporting EU efforts to halt the spread of the pandemic, find a cure for the illness and develop a vaccine. To this end, the EU bank is prioritising all investments related to the health sector and research and development programmes focusing on this goal. The EIB’s current project portfolio for supporting both critical healthcare infrastructure and research and development investments in the EU health sector stands at around €6 billion. The EIB and the World Health Organization also recently signed an agreement to drive cooperation between the two institutions and work together to strengthen healthcare systems in the countries most vulnerable to the pandemic.

To combat the economic impact of this crisis and as part of the package of measures the EU is deploying to tackle the economic effects of the pandemic, on 23 April the European Council approved the EIB Group’s creation of a €25 billion pan-European COVID-19 guarantee fund focusing primarily on supporting SMEs across the EU. The fund will make it possible to mobilise up to an estimated €200 billion of additional financing.

At the same time, the EIB Group is reorienting its operations to meet the financing needs created by COVID-19 and offer immediate assistance to European businesses. In March, the EIB Group announced a package of emergency measures with this objective in mind.  Under this initial response package, the EIB is offering an asset-backed securities (ABS) purchase programme to enable banks to pass on the risk of their SME loan portfolios to the EIB, with the aim of mobilising €10 billion. The EU bank is also adapting its existing financing instruments shared with the European Commission to mobilise up to €10 billion in additional financing for European SMEs and mid-caps. For its part, the EIF (the venture capital specialist subsidiary of the EIB Group) is offering specific EU-backed guarantees to financial intermediaries that will help to mobilise up to €8 billion. The EIB has also taken extraordinary measures to speed up its processes and make its internal policies more flexible in order to – among other things – deploy its support as quickly as possible and finance expenses that it would not normally cover, such as the operating costs of European businesses.

More detailed information on the support offered by the EIB and EIF is available on the following website: www.eib.org/covid-19

New products and services, working in partnership, and support to policy and practice in the fields of health and security are among the features presented in the latest EMCDDA General Report of Activities published today. The report, covering key achievements and governance in 2019, presents the implementation of the agency’s work programme activities over the 12-month period.

2019 was a year in which the agency released 32 scientific and corporate publications, in addition to 30 Country Drug Reports presenting the situation in the EU Member States, Norway and Turkey. EMCDDA staff contributed to some 300 scientific and institutional drug events and over 500 drug professionals were trained at capacity-building activities carried out by the agency (many in cooperation with partners).

Two flagship publications, the European Drug Report 2019 and the third edition of the EU Drug Markets Report (produced with Europol), were launched in Brussels by Dimitris Avramopoulos, then European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship. These reports contributed new evidence on the dynamic drug phenomenon and the increasingly innovative EU drug market, estimated to be worth at least EUR 30 billion per annum.

At a time when public health concerns are growing, the agency also acted effectively on three of its key priorities: tackling the problem of drug-related deaths, supporting effective harm-reduction interventions and engaging with drug prevention professionals. The European Prevention Curriculum handbook was an important resource published in this context, designed to support specialists working in the drugs field.

This was also the first year of operation under the new legislative framework of the EU Early Warning System (EWS) on new psychoactive substances (NPS). Eight risk communications were issued during in 2019 and 53 new psychoactive substances were notified to the EWS, bringing the total number of substances monitored to around 780.

Providing timely information to the EU drug policy debate was a transversal priority in 2019 and much effort was invested in analysing and reporting on developments in the evolving cannabis market. These culminated in a new report and a range of analyses, all of which were provided to key stakeholders.

Throughout the year, working in partnership was vital for the EMCDDA. Core to the agency’s activities, as always, were its established data providers: the Reitox network of national focal points. Two important EU-funded technical cooperation projects also took off, one for six of the candidate and potential candidate countries to the EU (IPA 7) and the other for 15 of the European Neighbourhood Policy countries (EU4MD). Working with partners also made it possible to organise the Third European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (‘Lisbon Addictions’) which attracted a record 1 300 participants in 2019.

Over the 12 months, the EMCDDA received recognition for its work from practitioners in the field, partners and drug policymakers. In 2019, the agency achieved its highest operational and financial performance to date and received a positive fourth external evaluation for the period 2013–18. The latter highlighted the EMCDDA as a true hub of scientific excellence, both in Europe and internationally.