BRUSSELS — The European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group, a caucus for members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who support credit unions, held its second formal meeting on International CU Day at the European Parliament’s Espeace Leopold in Brussels, Belgium.
The interest group's co-chairs, European Parliament Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki (Poland) and MEP Marian Harkin (Republic of Ireland), and its vice-chair, MEP Richard Howitt (United Kingdom), led the interest group's discussions regarding how European Union (EU) policy can create a regulatory environment that better supports and promotes credit unions' financial inclusion efforts.
According to the World Council of Credit Unions, the interest group's membership includes fifteen MEPs from Austria, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom, who are also members of the European Parliament's influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.
Representatives from credit unions affiliated with the European Network of Credit Unions (ENCU) shared with the MEPs how their institutions help people of modest means, as well as many other Europeans who benefit from credit unions' reasonably priced financial services. Credit union speakers included Grzegorz Buczkowski, board member of Stefczyk Credit Union representing the National Association of Co-operative Savings and Credit Unions (NACSCU) of Poland, Margaret Heffernan, manager of Rathkeale & District Credit Union and a director with the Irish League of Credit Unions, and Robert Kelly, general manager of NHS Credit Union and president of the Association of British Credit Unions, Ltd.
"International Credit Union Day is a day to recognize the crucial role that credit unions play as community organizations dedicated to financial inclusion in the European economy," Vice President Czarnecki said.
MEPs and credit union representatives also held a roundtable discussion on how EU policy could help limit regulatory burdens on credit unions and make it easier for individuals to start credit unions in member states where they do not currently exist, WOCCU said.
In addition to ABCUL, ILCU and NACSCU, other credit union organisations participating in the meeting included the Association of Credit Unions in the Netherlands, Dutch Association of Cooperating Credit Unions, Ukrainian National Association of Savings and Credit Unions and World Council of Credit Unions.
Above, right, members of the European Parliament Credit Union Interest Group met to discuss ways to reduce regulatory burden on credit unions. Below, from left: Pat Fay, ILCU; MEP Marian Harkin; MEP Luke "Ming" Flanagan; Breege-Anne Murphy, ILCU; Michael Taggart, Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union.