Lamfalussy process
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The Lamfalussy process is a process to speed up the EU legislative process. It was approved by the European Council in March 2001 with a view to the timely implementation of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP). The European Parliament approved in February 2002.
The process originally developed for the securities sector was based on a proposal by a "Committee of Wise Men" chaired by Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy .
The aim is to simplify and accelerate the complex and lengthy regular EU legislative process as part of a four-step plan. In December 2002 the Council decided to extend the Lamfalussy procedure to the entire EU financial sector. According to this procedure, the EU organs Council and Parliament are only supposed to adopt basic regulations and framework directives in the area assigned to them by means of the co-decision procedure . The technical details, on the other hand, are worked out by regulatory committees proposed by the EU Commission and decided by representatives of the member states in a comitology committee . The technical regulatory committees below are made up of representatives from the national financial supervisory authorities. In a third step, the national supervisory authorities will develop common standards and guidelines for uniform material implementation, which the Commission will then review with regard to their implementation on the basis of comprehensive reports to which the Member States are obliged.
Until the beginning of 2004 , the Lamfalussy process was a new legislative process aimed at speeding up only in the area of securities . In 2005 it was extended to the banking and insurance sectors. The Treaty of Lisbon regulated delegated law-making in Articles 290 and 291 TFEU under primary law. Although this resulted in changes to the Lamfalussy process, especially at level 2, the basic concept of legislation remained on four levels. Occasionally there is talk of a new Lamfalussy II procedure.
The experience with the Lamfalussy process is not without controversy. In particular, the question of democratic control and the democratic legitimation of the so-called level 3 committees (representatives of the national financial supervisory authorities ) within the framework of the Lamfalussy process requires intensive discussion. The aim must be to prevent supervisory authorities from making decisions that are no longer covered by the mandate of their respective committee.
literature
- Mechthild Schrooten: European financial market integration , in: Timm Beichelt et al. (Ed.), European studies: An introduction , Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 379–398. ( online )