In Brussels, a two-day meeting of the Expert Advisory Group of the Financial Services Users (FSUG) is taking place. FSUG was established by the European Commission in 2010 in order to include the financial services users in the process of preparation of the regulations, procedures, and policies at the EU level; as of now, it has 20 members from 11 EU countries, with VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, as the sole representative from Slovenia. Yesterday, the FSUG members listened to the presentations on the efforts of individual members, and afterward, they addressed the current initiatives of the European Commission regarding the insurance services, the options to build upon the past work of the FSUG, and the main topic, which was the prices of various financial services in the EU member states, as well as the topics for the next meeting of the FSUG in Helsinki.
Along with the progress in the VZMD's efforts to protect the investors, financial services users, and consumers, which Mr. Verbič had talked about in the previous meetings of the FSUG, he again placed special emphasis on the class actions against the four telecommunication carriers in Slovenia for having caused damages to over 1.4 million subscribers in an estimated total amount of over EUR 250 million (VIDEO: undefined). Furthermore, he presented the utterly bizarre attitude of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia towards the tax treatment of the suitable severance pay margin that VZMD has been able to obtain for the former minority shareholders in Slovenia, expropriated due to the squeeze-outs, through legal proceedings. Mr. Verbič highlighted in his presentation that "especially in cases of squeeze-outs, this innovative interpretation brings at least 25% greater tax burden to expropriated retail investors, of course besides higher and higher costs of financial intermediaries, that we are constantly dealing with, and actively trying to at least implement suitable limitations at the EU level."
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