27 November 2018

Investment & Pensions Europe: EC addresses pension fund concerns over sustainable finance plans

The European Commission is aware of European pension funds’ “sensitivities” about the introduction of delegated acts into the IORP II directive as part of the EU’s package of sustainable finance measures, an EC official has said.

Speaking on a panel at a Eurosif event in Brussels, Sven Gentner, head of unit for asset management at the Commission, said he was “very much aware” of the concerns around the EU pension fund directive and delegated acts – even though he admitted “I still don’t fully understand all of this”.

However, he emphasised that the Commission was not pursuing harmonisation between financial sectors when it came to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors.

“What we want to achieve is that everyone looks at these risks… so I don’t see any contradiction between having Level 2 [delegated acts] and leaving enough room for every industry to do things in the proper way,” he said.

The Council and the European Parliament saw things differently, added Gentner, “but I think this has more to do with past battles than current battles”.

“That’s unfortunate but OK, that’s where we are,” he said. “What we want to achieve is that every industry, every sector, every part of the market looks at these issues.”

He said there also appeared to be a need to clarify what was meant by the phrase ‘looking at these issues’ and what it meant to be able to meaningfully assess ESG risks.

“That’s what we want the ESAs [European Supervisory Authorities] to do,” said Genter. “We don’t want the ESAs to tell the industry ‘you can do this and you can’t do that’.”

EIOPA and ESMA, two of the ESAs, have been asked by the Commission to deliver technical advice on the integration of sustainability risks.

Full article

© IPE International Publishers Ltd.