Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Whereas:

The Commission Communication on a single market for 21st century Europe^f1, adopted in November 2007, was accompanied by a Staff Working Document on retail financial services^f2, which stressed the importance of the access to and availability of credit data in promoting competitive retail financial services markets. It also announced the establishment of an expert group on credit histories.

The White Paper on the Integration of EU Mortgage Credit Markets^f3 concluded that mortgage lenders and intermediaries should be required to adequately assess, by all appropriate means, the creditworthiness of borrowers before granting mortgage loans. It also concluded that mortgage lenders should not be discriminated against when accessing credit registers in other Member States and that credit data should circulate smoothly, while complying fully with Community data protection rules.

The Commission wishes to identify all legal, regulatory, administrative and other obstacles to the access to and the exchange of credit data, and to be advised on how to address these obstacles whilst ensuring a high level of consumer protection.

The expert group should be composed of individuals having competence in the area of credit data.

It is important to ensure that members of the group provide objective expert advice.

Personal data relating to members of the group should be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data^f4,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: