Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-08-Speech-3-086"
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"en.20081008.15.3-086"2
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"Mr President, since 2002 I have been dealing with the issue of stability and supervision on the financial markets. Already at that time, in a report for Parliament on prudential supervision, I pleaded for a strong system of European supervision comparable to the European system of central banks.
Thank God we have the euro and the ECB in these turbulent times, but it is all the more embarrassing that we do not have this strong supervisory architecture. At the time I could not get a majority of Parliament behind a revolutionary reform; everyone was speaking about evolution. Nevertheless, when I have spoken over the years with a number of supervisors and other high-level representatives from the industry and supervision, people told me: ‘We cannot say this publicly, but you are right that something more has to happen; a real crisis situation will show that this is not sufficient’.
So we needed a crisis to create the sense of urgency. Needless to say, I would have preferred to avoid such a crisis and I wish that we had been better prepared. But the crisis is there now and the tsunami that Mr McCreevy still did not want to look at some weeks ago, when we dealt with the Rasmussen and Lehne reports, is there and it is unprecedentedly heavy, I would say.
I would now expect this momentum to be there, but I am disappointed and embarrassed that what we are doing in the European Union is too little, too late. The whole world is watching but we are not managing to really get a common approach. Even economists and commentators that were the cheerleaders of this wonderful innovative financial engineering that should not be hindered by regulation are almost unanimous in their disappointment at what Europe’s leaders have done so far. I could refer to the editorial in yesterday’s
for instance, where they say: ‘Thus far, Europe’s leaders have displayed a purely declaratory brand of unity, jointly proclaiming that they will each take care of the problems in their own back yards.’ So the
also concluded that we need a conductor and not only solo singers.
Tomorrow I think there is an opportunity for Parliament to show that we not only sing our own arias of regret and anger and play the blame game, but we can make a real contribution constructively to establish leadership and pick up on very concrete proposals that the European Commission could immediately initiate.
It may look quite technical for many other Members of Parliament but I can assure you that these have been well thought through and well prepared by us in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. It only needs leadership and courage from you, Commissioner, to give the green light and to start up the process. You should not listen too much to the City lobbyists keeping you from doing things, and of course you should listen to experts – but the political responsibility is with you to take these initiatives.
Mr Barroso has already mentioned some short-term measures. I am happy with what he said about a wise persons’ group but, here again, this was something that we in Parliament proposed two years ago, and we did not get your support for this. In relation to the CRD proposals, the measures for the credit-rating agencies: it is not quite clear to me what measures you are going to present on the recommendation on executive pay. Here, I hope, you are not listening only to the weak proposals of the Ecofin Council but that you are prepared to move a bit further. Finally, on the supervision: it is not only long-term measures for the wise persons’ group; we should already start with something now. Concerning my Amendments 5, 6 and 7: I hope there will be support for a proposal which immediately leads to an independent chair and vice-chair for the European supervisory structure."@en1
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