Thank you, Vladislav.

First of all, let me congratulate the Bulgarian Presidency on the general approach reached on the 2016 Banking package.

This package is a key deliverable for risk reduction in our banking sector. It aims to complete the post-crisis regulatory agenda, address the outstanding issues for financial stability, and introduce internationally agreed standards in EU legislation. When implemented, it will help to make the European banking sector more resilient towards possible shocks.

Let me remind you of some concrete decisions and proposals contained in this package:

We are introducing a binding leverage ratio of 3% for all banks, and a higher ratio for global systemically important banks.

We are asking banks to build up bail-inable buffers, so in case there are problems with banks it is the banks’ creditors, not taxpayers, who are first in line to cover the losses. This includes an agreement on so-called total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC), with which the largest banks will have to comply. And actually we are going beyond the international minimum by setting out that they have to have a TLAC of at least 8% of their balance sheet.

To ensure that banks hold sufficient liquid assets to withstand periods of market turbulence, we introduce a net stable funding ratio.

And we are also ready to follow up the work on the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB), starting with a reporting requirement, when the work in the Basel Committee will be completed.

I would also highlight that this package also includes the principle of proportionality, with certain alleviations for smaller banks to reduce their reporting requirements and the related administrative burden.

Today’s deal is an important milestone and provides the Council Presidency with the mandate to start negotiations with the European Parliament.

So now we would invite the European Parliament to define their negotiation position as soon as possible, in view of a swift agreement on the file.

Today’s deal is also crucial in the context of further work to prepare decisions on completing the Banking Union in June. So there we need to move ahead with the concepts agreed in the Roadmap, both on risk reduction and risk sharing, as the Minister already outlined.

Then, as regards our anti-tax avoidance agenda, we welcome that Ministers gave the final green light this morning on the EU’s new tax transparency rules for tax intermediaries.

These rules will come into force in 2020 and will provide more transparency on the role of intermediaries who sell products and tax structures that can potentially help clients to avoid tax.

Unfortunately Member States were not able to reach agreement on new rules to strengthen cooperation between EU countries in the area of value added tax.

To recall, every year EUR 50 billion are lost to tax authorities as a result of cross-border VAT fraud – and this is a cautious estimate. This fraud can also be a source for organised crime, including terrorism.

We believe that the new rules would help to address this problem by boosting cooperation and information sharing between national tax authorities and law enforcement authorities.

I hope that the final details can be ironed out, hopefully already can be reached already at next month’s ECOFIN.

Finally, on the EU’s common list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, as it was said, ministers decided to de-list two countries: Bahamas and St Kitts and Nevis.

This means that there are currently 7 countries on the EU list and 65 countries on the so-called grey list.

Let me reiterate once again that even though moved to the grey list, these countries are NOT out of the EU’s sights.

On the contrary, just like the other grey list constituents, they should now move from words to action, and change their legislation to meet the EU criteria to which they have committed. We will be monitoring this very closely. And if they do not make the promised change, they may find themselves back on the blacklist again.

Thank you very much.

Your request will be handled by the Press Office of the General Secretariat of the Council in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data.

Your data will be stored in the database until you unsubscribe from the service.

Certain data (name, e-mail address, preferred language, media name, media type) may be disclosed to the press offices of the European institutions, the Permanent Representations of the Member States and to European Union agencies, under the conditions laid down in Articles 7 and 8 of Regulation 45/2001.

If there is data which you would not like to be stored, please let us know at: press.office@consilium.europa.eu

The Q&As provide clarifications in relation to the requirements for submission of transaction reports and reference data under MiFIR. In particular, the Q&As relate to Complex Trades and National client identifiers for natural persons.

The Q&A on complex trades provides new answers on reporting transactions and reference data for instruments where the execution results in a complex trade as defined under Article 12 of RTS 22.

The amendments to the existing Q&A on national client identifiers for natural persons further clarify how the following three national identifiers specified in Annex II of RTS 22 should be represented: the Czech ID, the Liechtensteinian ID, and the Romanian ID.

The purpose of this Q&A is to promote common supervisory approaches and practices in the application of MiFIR. It provides guidance to Investment Firms, Trading Venues, ARMs and Systematic Internalisers on compliance with the reporting provisions of MiFIR.

ESMA will periodically review these Q&A and update them where required.

​Today, the European Parliament (LIBE Committee) and the Council (COREPER) reached a political compromise on the Commission’s proposal to strengthen the mandate of the eu-LISA.

Welcoming the compromise agreement, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos and Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King said:

Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos: “Today’s agreement represents another crucial building block towards a more secure and resilient European Union. A strengthened eu-LISA will be the nerve centre for the development and maintenance of all our information systems on migration, border management and security, and crucially, their interoperability. We want to connect all the dots, not just legally but also operationally – and a stronger and more efficient eu-LISA will precisely help us do this.”

Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King added: “In the future, eu-LISA will play a pivotal role in helping keep Europe safe. Today’s agreement means that the Agency will have the resources it needs to manage the EU’s information systems for security and border management, help them to interact more efficient and improve the quality of the data they hold – an important step forward.“

On hearing about the outcome of the meeting, eu-LISA’s Executive Director Krum Garkov said: “Reaching a political compromise on our revised mandate is the biggest step towards the Agency’s future so far. It opens the door for eu-LISA to significantly increase its contribution to the Member States and to the EU as a whole. I am confident that all of us at the Agency are looking forward to the day we can start to implement our new mandate using the preparation work we have been putting in place over the last months. These are very exciting times for the Agency and I am eager to take it to the next level.“

The compromised text agreed in today’s final trilogue will now have to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.

CEREP provides information on credit ratings issued by Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) which are either registered or certified in the European Union. It allows investors to assess, on a single platform, the performance and reliability of credit ratings for different CRAs, asset classes, geographical regions and time horizons over a given time period.

CEREP is updated on a semi-annual basis with statistics covering the preceding 6-month period: the reporting periods are January to June and July to December.