Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis:

In terms of actual progress, we will come forward with a specific proposal to deal with one of the obstacles to cross-border loans in the spring. It will then take a year or so. It is a legislative process so there will have to be discussions with the EU Council, member states and the European Parliament before it is adopted and becomes applicable. It is not the only measure we are assessing in terms of the provision of cross-border financial services. We had been doing that already through the payment services directive as regards payment services. We also see obstacles in areas on cross-border money transfers, for example. We are a single European payment area but it is actually a single eurozone payment area, not an EU payment area, so we propose to extend it to the entire European Union. There are a number of obstacles to cross-border financial services and we will be coming forward with several proposals in the spring.