BRUSSELS, Belgium — Members of the European Parliament have launched the European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group, a caucus for European Union (EU) MEPs who support credit unions.
A launch event was held at the European Parliament's Espace Leopold here.
The European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group's launch coincided with the European Network of Credit Unions’ (ENCU) bi-annual meetings in Brussels, which included representatives from the Association of British Credit Unions, the Irish league of Credit Unions, Poland’s National Association of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions, the Dutch Association of Co-operating Credit Unions, and the World Council of Credit Unions.
According to WOCCU, the leadership of the European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group includes European Parliament Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki of Poland and MEP Marian Harkin of the Republic of Ireland as the interest group's co-chairs, and MEP Richard Howitt of the United Kingdom as the group's vice-chair. WOCCU said that in total, 15 MEPs from Austria, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom form the initial membership of the interest group.
"We are honored that so many prominent MEPs have come together to support credit unions and the important financial inclusion role they play in Europe," said Brian Branch, World Council president and CEO. "It is these MEPs who have consistently supported credit unions and helped to maintain a regulatory environment in the EU that achieves safe and sound credit union regulation without imposing excessive compliance burdens that would make it difficult for credit unions to serve Europeans of modest means."
Separately, ENCU members also met during their bi-annual meetings with the European Commission regarding the EU's upcoming rulemaking on Basel III's "Net Stable Funding Ratio" liquidity rules, as well as the Commission's proposed directive on suitability standards for adjustable rate consumer lending.
Pictured in Brussels, from left, MEP Kosma Zlotowski (Poland); Matthew Bland (ABCUL); Pawel Grzesik (NACSCU); Breege-Anne Murphy (ILCU); Ed Farrell (ILCU); MEP Marian Harkin (Republic of Ireland); Brian McCrory (ILCU and World Council); Michael Edwards (World Council); Georgina Friedrichs (VSK); and Jerzy Szmit (Member of the Sejm (Parliament) of Poland).