26.5.2000 Official Journal of the European Communities L 126/1 [ (Acts whose publication is obligatory) DIRECTIVE 2000/12/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 March 2000 relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE December 1989 on a solvency ratio for credit EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular the first and third sentences of Article 47(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (1), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (3), Whereas: (1) Council Directive 73/183/EEC of 28 June 1973 on the abolition of restrictions on freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services in respect of self-employed activities of banks and other financial institutions (%), first Council Directive (77/780/EEC) of 12 December 1977 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (*), Council Directive 89/299/EEC of 17 April 1989 on the own funds of credit institutions (°), second Council Directive 89/646/ EEC of 15 December 1989 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (°), Council Directive 89/647/EEC of 18 () O] C 157, 25.5.1998, p. 13. (%) Opinion of the European Parliament of 18 January 2000 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 13 March 2000 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () OJ L 194, 16.7.1973, p. 1. ( O] L 322, 17.12.1977, p. 30. Directive as last amended by Directive 98/33/EC (O] L 204, 21.7.1998, p. 29). () OJ L 124, 5.5.1989, p. 16. Directive as last amended by Directive 92/30/EEC (O] L 110, 28.4.1992, p. 52). (®) OJ L 386, 30.12.1989, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 95/26[EC (O] L 168, 18.7.1995, p. 7). institutions (*), Council Directive 92/30/EEC of 6 April 1992 on the supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis (), and Council Directive 92/121/EEC of 21 December 1992 on the monitoring and control of large exposures of credit institutions(’) have been frequently and substantially amended. For reasons of clarity and rationality, the said Directives therefore, should be codified and combined in a single text. (2) Pursuant to the Treaty, any discriminatory treatment with regard to establishment and to the provision of services, based either on nationality or on the fact that an undertaking is not established in the Member State where the services are provided, is prohibited. (3) In order to make it easier to take up and pursue the business of credit institutions, it is necessary to eliminate the most obstructive differences between the laws of the Member States as regards the rules to which these institutions are subject. (4) This Directive constitutes the essential instrument for the achievement of the internal market, a course determined by the Single European Act and set out in timetable form in the Commission's White Paper, from the point of view of both the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide financial services, in the field of credit institutions. (5) Measures to coordinate credit institutions must, both in order to protect savings and to create equal conditions of competition between these institutions, apply to all of them. Due regard must be had, where applicable, to the objective differences in their statutes and their proper aims as laid down by national laws. () O] L 386, 30.12.1989, p. 14. Directive as last amended by Directive 98/33/EC. () OJ L 110, 28.4.1992, p. 52. () OJ L 29, 5.2.1993, p. 1. Directive as amended by the 1994 Act of Accession.