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Petr Ježek

Born in Prague in 1965. A graduate of Prague’s University of Economics, Petr Ježek joined his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as a diplomat. For some ten years, he held relatively high posts related to the country’s ties with the EU, e.g. heading the Foreign Ministry’s European Integration Department and serving as Deputy State Secretary for European Affairs. He also worked as chief of staff of then Czech Prime Minister Vladimír Špidla. In 2014, Petr Ježek was elected Member of the European Parliament on the ballot of the ANO 2011 party.

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Austria’s Hypo bank measures in line with EU rules, EU financial chief tells ECON

During an exchange of views with the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Jonathan Hill in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Petr Ježek asked about the worrying situation involving the winding up of the failed Austrian Hypo Alpe Adria bank.

The Austrian state of Carinthia has guaranteed up to 10 billion euro of the bank's assets, but the Austrian government has put in place legislation which declares that state guarantees can be declared redundant. Those who will bear the most losses are therefore a number of German banks. It is estimated that the losses incurred could decrease profits of German banks by 10% in 2015.

Those affected have asked Austria's Constitutional Court to analyse the law Austria has put in place to see if it is in line with the country’s constitution. Should the court rule that the guarantee stands, this would undermine the EU's Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) principle that creditors should absorb losses before taxpayers.

Petr Ježek asked whether the Commission had considered the case and what effect it could have on the implementation of the new rules.

In his response, Commissioner Hill highlighted the complex nature of the situation, specifically due to the overlap between the implementation of the previous regulations governing bank failures and the new BRRD rules.

Lord Hill insisted that the Commission was in close contact with the Austrian authorities, but that in principal he believed that the way Austria has dealt with the case is justified. He also highlighted his view that the new BRRD regulation makes the banking system as a whole much stronger and that at this stage he didn't feel that any rule changes were necessary.

This case could be considered a litmus test of the new BRRD regime and could determine whether EU regulation adopted in the wake of the Financial Crisis is going in the right direction.

The debate with Lord Hill in the ECON committee was also covered by the Reuters news agency.

 

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