Mr. Gary Tobin:

The Commission has the right of initiative in terms of proposals for directives. The Commission decided to bring forward these proposals, which will be debated and discussed by the European Council. Because it is a co-decision procedure, the proposals will also be discussed by the European Parliament. The Commission, with these proposals, is trying to learn the lessons from the financial crisis, particularly given the fact that the banks were under-provisioned for the stock of NPLs on their books. It is also trying to ensure that banks deal with their future stocks of NPLs in a faster and more efficient manner, given that they did not deal with them quickly during the crisis.