EU demolishes financial walls in single market
The EU is one step closer to a single European payment area after the European Parliament backed plans for new rules to make cross-border payments with debit or credit cards across the bloc as easy as domestic payments.
MEPs gathering in Strasbourg this week adopted on Tuesday (24 April) a report by French centre-right MEP Jean-Paul Gauzes on "payment services in the internal market."
Under the new plan, payments within the EU – in particular credit transfers, direct debits and card payments – are set to become as easy as domestic payments within a member state.
The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) have in a joint statement said that the parliament move "will provide the foundation for a single 'domestic' euro payments market" - known as the "single euro payment area (SEPA)."
Ending national monopolies in the payment sector will spur efficiency and drive down costs – saving the European economy between €50-100 billion a year, according to the EU executive.
The law now needs to rubber stamped by EU member states and will take effect after translation and an 18-month implementation period in late 2009 or early 2010.