Welcome to the FIG Top 5 at 5

On 2 November 2026, the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (“Central Bank”), Gabriel Makhlouf, delivered an opening speech entitled “Economic Transitions: Technology” (“Speech”) at the Central Bank’s fifth Financial System Conference. The Speech focused on artificial intelligence (“AI”) and the digitalisation of money and financial assets, addressing the opportunities and risks arising from these technological developments and the Central Bank’s response.

In an accompanying press release, the Central Bank highlighted that the conference brought together approximately 500 delegates at Croke Park, including policymakers, senior industry figures and stakeholders from across the financial ecosystem. Key themes included geopolitical developments, European financial markets integration, central bank digital currencies and resilience in an era of digital transformation.

Artificial intelligence

Governor Makhlouf highlighted AI’s potential to reshape the economy, the financial system and the way in which financial services are delivered and consumed. Noting that its capabilities have developed more rapidly than anticipated, he stated that the vast majority of firms regulated by the Central Bank are already using AI, ranging from machine learning to generative and agentic AI.

In terms of the financial system, the Governor outlined the Central Bank’s focus on the impact of AI on:

• financial stability, including systemic risks associated with frontier AI models’ cyber capabilities and the increasingly leveraged and interconnected financing of AI-related investments;
• the safety and soundness of firms, including operational and cyber resilience, the use of AI for critical services, governance of AI deployment and business model risks;
• consumer and investor protection, including risks arising from firms’ use of AI and consumers’ own use of AI for financial advice or to execute financial services through agents; and
• financial integrity, including AI’s potential to facilitate fraud, scams and money laundering.

Financial stability, governance and resilience

The Governor expressed concern about stretched valuations associated with AI-related investments, stating that a market correction “would not be a surprise”. He highlighted the scale of investment, debt financing and the circularity of some financing arrangements, emphasising the importance of vigilance, resilience and scenario planning that captures both novel and traditional risks.

From a regulatory and supervisory perspective, and specifically referencing the 2026 Regulatory and Supervisory Outlook Report, Governor Makhlouf referred to the Central Bank’s expectations regarding AI governance, strategic alignment and accountability. He emphasised that, while AI can provide powerful tools, “it is humans who deploy them and therefore humans who remain accountable and responsible for them.”

The Governor also highlighted the Central Bank’s engagement with the financial sector on risks arising from frontier AI models, particularly cyber resilience. Although, he acknowledged that the financial sector has made significant progress on operational resilience, he cautioned that risks remain severe and the required level of resilience is rising. The Central Bank plans to deepen its analysis and supervisory capabilities to evaluate AI systems used in financial services, including the wider impacts they may have on the economy.

Third Innovation Sandbox Programme

Governor Makhlouf announced that the theme of the Central Bank’s third Innovation Sandbox Programme (“Programme”) will be “Advancing AI for Consumer Good”. The programme will address matters including:

• supporting consumers in vulnerable circumstances;
• making automated decisions fairer and easier to explain;
• strengthening resilience to fraud and scams; and
• maintaining clear accountability as AI moves from advising to acting.

Tokenisation and distributed ledger technology

Turning to tokenisation and distributed ledger technology (“DLT”), the Governor highlighted the potential of such technology to improve how financial assets are issued, held and transferred, delivering greater efficiency and new products. However, he cautioned that technological capability alone will not realise these opportunities and that the scale of benefits, commercial viability and resilience of emerging models under stressed conditions, remain uncertain.

The Governor also highlighted the publication of the Central Bank’s feedback statement on its March 2026 discussion paper on DLT and tokenisation and outlined five priority areas for future work:

• central bank money settlement and collateral, including Eurosystem projects Pontes and Appia and work on the collateral eligibility of tokenised assets;
• legal and regulatory clarity, including working with the Department of Finance to support actions under the Ireland for Finance Strategy – Vision 2030;
• innovation engagement, through a dedicated tokenisation access point (“TAP”) within the Innovation Hub and an innovation insights model involving policy sprints on emerging regulatory issues, with an initial emphasis on tokenisation;
• analysis and capabilities, deepening the Central Bank’s understanding of on-chain developments and the macro-financial implications of a broader shift to tokenised finance; and
• guarding against fragmentation, including supporting industry efforts to develop common standards and practices.

Conclusion

The Governor emphasised that the Central Bank will remain technology-neutral, but not “technology blind”. Its objectives remain unchanged, with a focus on enabling the opportunities arising from innovation while managing risks and maintaining trust in the monetary and financial system. Its response will continue to be guided by principles of being forward-looking, connected, proportionate, predictable, transparent and agile.

In October 2026, the Central Bank of Ireland (“Central Bank”) published its cross-sectoral industry feedback report, entitled, “Moving the Dial on Customer Experience” (“Report”). The Report summarises findings from supervisory activities conducted during 2025–2026 and sets out expectations for improving customer experience across retail financial services.

The Report is aimed at all retail financial services providers operating in Ireland. The supervisory work covered retail banking, retail credit, domestic life and non-life insurance, investment, payments, electronic money and retail intermediary sectors.

Reasons for the review

Improving customer experience is a key supervisory priority for the Central Bank. Its supervisory work, consumer engagement and research consistently identified poor customer service as a primary cause of consumer dissatisfaction with financial firms. The Report highlights that poor service can cause inconvenience, frustration, uncertainty, mistrust and stress, potentially leading to customer harm, and may indicate a poor customer culture within firms.

The Report was informed by firms’ conduct data, Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman insights, social media monitoring, the Central Bank’s Consumer Insights Model and direct engagement with consumers and representative groups.

Areas reviewed

The Central Bank examined customer supports, the end-to-end complaints journey, firm and sector-specific issues, and conduct data. It also assessed whether previous supervisory actions had resulted in meaningful and measurable improvements for customers. The findings of the Report, and the Central Bank’s expectations of all firms, are grouped under two principal focus areas:

• engaging with customers – covering the quality of direct customer engagement / complaint management / communication channels. Under each of these areas, the Report sets out the Central Bank’s corresponding expectations of firms; and
• enablers and internal procedures – covering resourcing, staff competence and training / quality assurance (“QA”) / root cause analysis (“RCA”) / measuring effectiveness. Again, under each of these headings, the Report details the Central Bank’s corresponding expectations of firms.

Findings and supervisory expectations

Some of the main findings and corresponding supervisory expectations are set out below:

• quality of direct customer engagement – the Report identifies positive examples of clear, professional and empathetic engagement, supported by good product knowledge and accountability for resolving issues. However, it also found straightforward issues taking a disproportionate amount of time to resolve, unfulfilled commitments, inadequate follow-up, customers having to repeat information and a lack of empathy towards customers in vulnerable circumstances. Firms are expected to ensure staff communicate clearly, professionally and with empathy, provide accurate information, explain terminology in plain language and honour commitments. Clear escalation procedures and accountability mechanisms should address failures to follow up. Where an error affecting one customer may reasonably have affected others, firms must resolve it for all affected customers efficiently, fairly and promptly. The same standards apply to digital engagement and outsourced providers.

• complaint management – the Report highlights that some firms failed to recognise and record complaints when customers first expressed dissatisfaction, sometimes waiting until customers expressly stated that they wanted to make a complaint. Other findings included failure to advised of the option to have oral complaints treated in line with the firm’s complaints procedures, premature complaint closure and non-compliance with prescribed acknowledgement and update timelines. The Report emphasises that responsibility for recognising complaints rests with the firm, not the customer. Customers must not be required to use formal language or the word “complaint”. Firms must maintain effective investigation and resolution systems and resolve complaints before closing them. They should regularly review their procedures and train customer-facing staff to identify dissatisfaction correctly. Complaints must be logged accurately and included in Central Bank returns, while website complaints require immediate acknowledgement, including complaints procedure details and ombudsman contact information.  The Central Bank also recently published a feedback report following its cross sectoral thematic review of the customer experience through the lens of customer complaints. The scope of that review included a range of firms across domestic life and non-life insurance, retail intermediary and payment institution / e-money sectors – for more information, see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 27 August 2026.

• communication channels – some firms did not meet their own service level agreements, particularly on busier telephone lines, and service levels were not consistently monitored across all communication channels, for example with email. Positive practices included real-time monitoring and redeployment of staff to maintain service standards. Firms should maintain sufficient, flexible resources and monitor key metrics, including call waiting times, abandonment rates and performance across email, chat, digital and other relevant channels. Identified service risks should be mitigated promptly. Where firms use AI, chatbots or automated systems, they must safeguard customer interests, maintain transparency and service quality, provide appropriate escalation and monitor fairness and bias. Customers requiring non-digital channels or accessibility support should not be excluded by digital-only communications.

• resourcing, staff competence and training – although firms had established training and supervision programmes, training for existing staff generally favoured regulatory and product knowledge over soft skills. Some firms did not fully comply with training and competency record-keeping requirements. The Central Bank expects firms to demonstrate full compliance with relevant requirements, ensure adequate resourcing levels, and provide ongoing customer service and soft skills training, to support effective customer interactions.

• quality assurance – the Report found that while firms had QA processes in place, these tended to prioritise compliance over assessment of customer experience quality.  The Central Bank expects QA processes to be designed in such a way that regulatory compliance and customer experience outcomes are assessed, independent oversight is incorporated to provide objective assessment and QA findings are used to drive training and continuous improvement initiatives.

• root cause analysis – the Report found that firms carried out ineffective RCA, generally failing to make proper use of data and insights to drive improvements in customer service standards. Firms are expected to take a proactive approach to RCA, particularly for recurring issues, moving beyond addressing immediate symptoms to identify and address root causes.

• measuring effectiveness – firms with established data and metrics frameworks were better able to demonstrate the positive impact of their actions. The Central Bank expects firms to use good quality conduct data and improve management information frameworks to support better tracking of customer outcomes.

Director Patricia Dunne’s speech

In a speech, delivered on 23 October 2026 at a Central Bank seminar on “Moving the Dial on Customer Experience”, Patricia Dunne, Director of Horizontal Supervision, highlighted that customer experience is one of the Central Bank’s three priority areas for consumer and investor protection under its new supervisory framework. She emphasised that securing customers’ interests is not a “tick-box compliance exercise”, in that, firms must embed customer interests in their culture, strategy, business model, decision-making and operations, with implementation and embedding of the revised Consumer Protection Code a priority.

Ms Dunne confirmed that the Central Bank will assess whether supervisory actions deliver meaningful improvements and evolve its approach to address risks arising from digitalisation, AI and other technological developments, while stressing that the onus remains on firms to drive sustainable change.

Next steps for firms

The Report states that the Central Bank expects all firms across all sectors to review its findings and expectations, taking account of their nature, scale and complexity, and take action to improve customer-service standards. Importantly, boards are expected to appoint PCF role holders with clear responsibility for actioning the Report’s expectations, in line with the Individual Accountability Framework and, where applicable, the Senior Executive Accountability Regime.

Customer experience will remain a supervisory priority and is included in the supervisory strategies of all relevant sectors over a three-year cycle. The Central Bank will assess firms’ implementation of the Report’s expectations and, where implementation is unsatisfactory, use its full supervisory toolkit to drive compliance and hold firms accountable.

The Central Bank of Ireland (“Central Bank”) recently published the slides (“Slides”) from its Retail Intermediaries Roadshow (“Roadshow”) that took place in Dublin and Cork on 15 and 16 October 2026.

The Roadshow addressed a number of topics relevant to the retail intermediary sector, including, key insights for 2026, fitness and probity (“F&P”) updates, the recently published draft guidance on outsourcing, anti-money laundering, regulatory policy updates, the Central Bank’s supervisory approach to AI and insights regarding financial crime and cyber risks.

Some key highlights are set out below:

Retail intermediaries sector: key insights for 2026

• supervisory priorities and expectations – as set out in the 2026 Regulatory and Supervisory Outlook Report (“RSO 2026”), the Central Bank emphasised that retail intermediaries should be sustainable, resilient, well-run and consumer-focused, incorporating customers’ interests into their strategy, business model and decision-making. Particular areas of focus, again as per the RSO 2026, include operational and cyber resilience, customer treatment, unregulated products and services, commission and remuneration arrangements, and evolving business models. Firms should ensure that their controls remain appropriate as digitalisation increases and that remuneration arrangements do not hinder their ability to secure customers’ interests and deliver fair outcomes;
• customer experience and complaints – the Slides highlight the findings from the cross-sectoral review of customer experience through the lens of complaints – for more information, see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 27 August 2026;
• sectoral mapping and authorisation – the Slides highlight that the results of the retail intermediaries sectoral mapping survey will inform supervisory engagement and prioritisation, with the exercise to be repeated every two to three years. The Slides also highlight the streamlined authorisation process, launched in February 2026, for sole traders transitioning to single director companies where their business model and operations remain unchanged. Eligible applicants benefit from a shortened application process without an individual questionnaire submission – for more information see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 19 February 2026;
• planned supervisory activities for 2027 – core work in 2027 will include applying the sectoral mapping survey findings to supervisory planning and continuing the review of unregulated activities. The Central Bank also plans cross-sectoral thematic reviews, potentially including retail intermediaries, assessing compliance with obligations to secure customers’ interests under the Consumer Protection Code 2025 (“CPC 2025”). These will address commission arrangements, customers in vulnerable circumstances and informing customers effectively.

Fitness and probity: PCF applications

The Slides reiterate that Central Bank approval is required before appointing an individual to a pre-approval controlled function (“PCF”) and that firms must complete due diligence before submitting an application. Applications should contain sufficiently detailed, candid and accurate information demonstrating competence, relevant qualifications, capacity and suitability for the particular role. The proposer’s declaration should explain the firm’s assessment and conclusion, supported by its due diligence.

The Slides also outline the interview process and arrangements for temporary officers filling PCF vacancies. Temporary appointments are generally limited to six months and are not available to firms seeking authorisation. Firms must confirm the officer’s suitability and compliance with F&P standards, with a permanent PCF application to be submitted within three months.

Outsourcing and third-party risk

The Slides highlight that operational resilience is a critical priority for the Central Bank, with third-party risk management at its core. The Slides deal with the consultation on the proposed new guidance on good practices for the sound management of third-party risks – for more information, see FIG Top at 5 dated 15 October 2026. The Central Bank emphasised the non-binding nature of the proposed guidance, together with its focus on proportionality and clarity as to roles.

Anti-money laundering: risk evaluation questionnaire

The Slides cover the new EU anti-money laundering framework and the role of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (“AMLA”), including direct supervision of selected high-risk cross-border firms and greater consistency in national supervision. It also highlights the extension of anti-money laundering obligations to additional categories of entities, including mortgage intermediaries and credit intermediaries.

The enhanced risk evaluation questionnaire (“REQ”) was also addressed. It will support AMLA risk ratings, Central Bank supervision, sectoral and thematic reviews, and the national risk assessment. The first submission is due on 24 March 2027, with a reference date of 31 December 2026. Firms are advised to begin collating data as soon as possible, familiarise themselves with the questions before a planned January 2027 workshop. The Slides also refer to guidance notes, dated 30 October 2026, regarding the REQ for intermediaries (available to download via the Slides), highlighting that the REQ should not be competed without this new guidance having been reviewed.

Consumer policy: regulatory updates

• CPC 2025 implementation – the Slides highlight that the focus has moved from preparedness to implementation. The Slides highlight the activity of the Central Bank as regards responding to queries concerning advertising, disclosure and interaction with other legislation. The updated general code guidance is also emphasised – for more information, see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 22 October 2026. Upcoming developments flagged include the application of the CPC 2025 to credit unions, consolidation of the SME lending regulations and amendments reflecting distance marketing and consumer credit requirements;
• financial literacy and distance marketing – the Slides highlight the National Financial Literacy Strategy against a backdrop of increasingly complex financial services, digitalisation and sophisticated scams. It also addresses strengthened protections for distance contracts, by way of Ireland’s transposition of the Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services Directive II, including clearer information, accessible withdrawal rights, online cancellation functionality, adequate pre-contractual explanations and interfaces that do not manipulate consumers’ decisions – for more information, see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 9 July 2026;
• Consumer Credit Directive 2 – the Slides identify 20 November 2026 as the effective date and encourage firms to prepare accordingly. Areas highlighted include expanded product coverage, affordability assessments using objective and verified information, enhanced disclosures, human review following automated declines and active consumer choice for add-on insurance;
• Retail Investment Strategy – the Slides address value for money, inducements, suitability and advice, disclosures and marketing. Ongoing technical work and stakeholder consultation is highlighted, with the Slides projecting transposition in Q4 2028 and full market application in June 2029.

Central Bank’s supervisory approach to AI

The Slides provide an update as to the domestic implementation of the EU AI Act and the role of the Central Bank under that Act. The Central Bank’s priorities are also set out and include developing its understanding of AI use across the financial services value chain, including agentic AI and multi-agent systems, reinforcing governance and model management expectations, and supporting implementation of the EU AI Act within its remit. Additionally, the Slides highlight the supervisory expectations of the Central Bank in this area including expectations related to AI inventory / risk appetite / governance / accountability / third-party AI.

The Slides also highlight the Innovation Hub, Sandbox Programme and AI Act Single Information Platform as sources of engagement and support.

Financial crime and cyber risk

Under this heading, the Slides consider evolving threats, including ghost brokers, advance fee scams, AI and deepfakes, and clone websites. It outlines the Central Bank’s approach to protecting the regulatory perimeter through education, disruption and enforcement, including investigations, warning notices and prosecution.

The Slides encourage the use of the Central Bank’s registers and warning notices to check providers and its reporting channels to raise concerns about unauthorised activity.

When it comes to cyber risk, the message is to pause, question and verify unexpected or urgent communications, and to use the Central Bank’s portal rather than relying on email. The Slides also highlight protected disclosure channels for reporting actual or potential breaches of financial services legislation.

1. EIOPA publishes final advice on insurers’ disclosures under EU taxonomy framework

 

On 30 October 2026, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) published its final technical advice (“Advice”) to the European Commission (“Commission”) on the review of (re)insurance disclosures under the taxonomy disclosures delegated act (“DDA”). The Advice aims to simplify reporting and improve the transparency and comparability of insurers’ taxonomy disclosures.

The Advice follows the Commission’s March 2026 request and EIOPA’s subsequent consultation. For more information on the background and consultation proposals, see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 9 July 2026.

Key recommendations

EIOPA favours targeted “quick fix” changes to the existing reporting framework rather than introducing a new indicator at this stage. Some of the key recommendations are as follows:

• underwriting KPI – EIOPA recommends renaming the existing underwriting key performance indicator (“KPI”) the “Adaptation Underwriting KPI”, to clarify its focus on climate change adaptation. It also recommends a common calculation approach, capturing only the share of premiums attributable to climate-related risks, and narrowing the business included in the calculation to the eight taxonomy-eligible lines. An alternative would make inclusion of the three most relevant lines mandatory, with the remaining five included voluntarily;
• no new green insured activities KPI at this stage – following consideration of consultation feedback, EIOPA advises against introducing the additional KPI explored in the consultation, which would measure the taxonomy alignment of insured businesses and assets. It highlights implementation costs, methodological challenges and data limitations, recommending that the concept be revisited in five years;
• combined KPI – where investors require a single figure to measure their exposure to an insurer, EIOPA recommends replacing the weighted average of the investment and underwriting KPIs with a “reference KPI” reflecting the insurer’s business model. This would be the investment KPI for life insurers and the adaptation underwriting KPI for non-life insurers, with composite insurers selecting the KPI corresponding to their predominant business; and
• simpler templates: EIOPA recommends removing the breakdown of gas and nuclear activities from both investment and underwriting reporting templates, as this information is not applicable to underwriting and is generally not material for insurers’ investments.

Cross-sectoral matters

Together with the European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority, EIOPA recommends simplifying group reporting by focusing on the reporting regime applicable to the parent undertaking, supplemented by simplified disclosures where material secondary activities are not adequately captured. The authorities also advise against allowing financial undertakings to use counterparties’ operational expenditure KPI in their taxonomy disclosures, even voluntarily, given the additional complexity and limited informational value.

 

2. EIOPA publishes staff paper setting out four-pillar approach to integrating behavioural insights into conduct of business supervision

 

On 27 October 2026, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) published a staff paper (“Paper”) that sets out a four pillar framework aimed at helping supervisory authorities integrate behavioural insights into their conduct of business supervision. It is envisaged that this will ultimately improve consumer outcomes.

The Paper advocates for integrating behavioural insights throughout supervisory and policy work, from identifying problems to designing and evaluating interventions, rather than using them only to refine solutions already selected. It identifies four interrelated building blocks, to be applied flexibly rather than as a fixed sequence, as follows:

1. Define and assess consumer outcomes:

Supervisors should assess the actual effects of products and practices on consumers, rather than treating firms’ compliance as a sufficient indicator of good outcomes. The ultimate objective is consumers’ financial health, including appropriate insurance coverage, adequate retirement income and resilience against financial shocks. Assessment should cover the full product lifecycle, including design, distribution, ongoing experience and claims or payout. Improved understanding and better product selection can indicate progress, but do not necessarily establish better long-term outcomes.

2. Understand consumer behaviour as it is:

Supervisors should avoid assuming either that consumers will make effective decisions simply because information is available, or that their behaviour is inherently irrational. Decisions need to be understood in context, including limited time, complexity, incomplete information and competing priorities. Product design, distribution practices and market structures also shape consumer choices. These factors should be analysed before selecting an intervention.

3. Consider interventions at different levels:

Disclosure and “nudges” alone are unlikely to produce large and lasting improvements. Supervisors should also consider interventions addressing market structures and business models, product features and design, and distribution practices. A combination of measures may be needed. Their effects should be evaluated after implementation, including whether firms adapt in ways that weaken their effectiveness or whether unintended consequences arise.

4. Combine evidence-gathering methods:

Supervisors should formulate specific, testable research questions and select appropriate methods, potentially combining desk research, qualitative interviews, surveys, administrative and customer-journey data, and experiments such as A/B testing. Combining methods helps address individual limitations, including the potential gap between consumers’ reported intentions and their actual behaviour.

Examples

The Paper illustrates how the framework can be put into practice with examples from its work on the natural catastrophe insurance protection gap, credit protection insurance sold through banks and the sales process for insurance-based investment products.

1. EU Council adopts proposed PSD3 and PSR at first reading

 

On 29 October 2026, the European Council (“Council”) adopted the proposed directive on payment services and electronic money services in the internal market (“PSD3”) and the proposed Payment Services Regulation (“PSR”), at first reading.

The Council published final compromise texts on the proposed PSD3 and PSR in April 2026, following the Council’s and the Parliament’s agreement of their respective negotiating positions in June 2025 and April 2024 – for more information, see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 30 April 2026.

With this latest development, the Council published the following:

• a statement, dated 29 October 2026, on the proposed PSD3 – this statement sets out the main elements of PSD3 that the co-legislators have reached agreement on, being, harmonisation of the e-money framework / safeguarding of funds and access to settlement systems / access to cash; and
• a statement, dated 29 October 2026, on the proposed PSR – this statement sets out the main elements of PSR that the co-legislators have reached agreement on, being, enhanced fraud prevention and strict liability framework / open banking.

Both statements highlight that the Council’s position underlines the main objectives of the European Commission (“Commission”) proposals and fully reflects the compromise reached in the informal negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament (“Parliament”), with the support of the Commission. Accordingly, both statements confirm that the Council has adopted the texts of the proposed PSD3 and PSR, published on 23 October 2026, at first reading.

Next steps

The next step is for Parliament to adopt the texts in plenary.

 

2. EU Council publishes compromise texts for MISP proposals

 

On 30 October 2026, the Council of the European Union (“Council”) published an ‘A’ item note (“Note”) addressed to the Permanent Representatives Committee / Council (“COREPER”).

The Council agreed the key elements of its negotiating position regarding MISP earlier in October 2026 – for more information, see FIG Top 5 at 5 dated 15 October 2026.

The Note invites COREPER to confirm agreement on the compromise texts as regards the legislative proposals related to the market integration and supervision package (“MISP”). The relevant texts were also published and are as follows:

• the text of the proposed directive on the further development of capital market integration and supervision (MISP Directive);
• the text of the proposed regulation on the further development of capital market integration and supervision (MISP Regulation); and
• the text of the proposed regulation on settlement finality.

The Note also recommends that the Council reach a general approach, as set out on the above texts, at a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on 9 November 2026 so that the Presidency can conduct interinstitutional negotiations as soon as the European Parliament settles its own negotiating position.