The legislative initiatives necessary for Georgia's accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) were discussed at a joint meeting of the Committees on the EU Integration, the Legal Issues, and the Sector Economy and Economic Policy.
The Draft Law on Tax System and Tax Service was introduced by the Vice-President of the National Bank, Archil Mestvirishvili.
“The package introduced serves for the development of the market, promotion of competition, protection of the customers’ rights and transparency; we strive to lead Georgia to access SEPA”, - he stated elucidating that the package ensures the fulfillment of one of the key criterion for the accession to SEPA envisaging the compliance of the national legislation with PSD2 - the revised Payment Services Directive.
Besides, the package ensures the fulfillment of the Association Agreement commitments. The significant guarantees provided in the Draft serve for the maximal protection of the parties engaged in the tax service provision and for improvement of the access to the tax services and regulation of competition. The effective enforcement of the Law requires the equipment of the NB with certain authorities.
The Committees discussed the Draft Organic Law on National Bank, introduced by the NB Vice-President, Papuna Lezhava. The regulations of the package envisage the oversight of the virtual asset service providers at the first stage as follows: mandatory registration in the NB, verification of the compliance criterion for the administrators and oversight on curbing the money laundry and financing of terrorism. The virtual asset service provider is determined as an accountable entity subject to the same requirements as stipulated under the Law for other entities.
The Committees discussed the Draft Law on Activity of Commercial Banks, regulating the licensing requirements for the commercial banks, compliance criterion for the administrators and the acquisition of a significant share. The reporters answered the questions and made additional elucidations. MPs expressed their remarks and approved the packages. The parties agreed on further cooperation for acceleration of the accession to SEPA, though as noted, all the issues not related to SEPA but added to the package shall be considered in a standalone manner.
“The EU Integration Committee approves the maximal efforts to facilitate our accession to SEPA but all the laws to be adopted shall be of high quality covering all the issues thoroughly investigated. At that, we keep ensuring the maximal reflection of all EU directives in the legal initiatives necessary for the accession to SEPA”, - the Chair of the Committee, Maka Botchorishvili stated.
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