MEPs attempt to resolve mortgage deadlock

Pervenche Beres and Phillip Whitehead, the MEPs who chair Parliament's economic and monetary affairs and internal market committees, meet today (17 November) to try to break a month-long deadlock over who will draft a report on the EU mortgage market.

Both committees want one of their members to pen the own-initiative report, which will run in parallel to the European Commission's Green Paper on mortgage credit, published in July.

Market players have until the end of this month to respond to the paper, which touted ideas ranging from common consumer information and harmonising repayment and annual percentage rates (APR), to introducing an EU-mortgage or allowing new mortgage lenders to enter the market.

Berès and Whitehead are also to lock horns over who will win responsibility for work on new rules on a pan-EU payment system, to be published by the European Commission on 30 November.

Pervenche Beres and Phillip Whitehead, the MEPs chairing the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs and Internal Market Committees, were to meet on 17 November 2005 to try to break a month-long deadlock over which Committee would take the lead in drafting a report on the EU mortgage market.