What Sharon Did Last Week (21st - 25th March)
Monday
Sharon travelled from the UK to the European Parliament in Brussels, leaving at 6.30am to arrive at midday.
She caught up with her Brussels team and went through some of the many diary requests she received over the past week.
At 13.30, she had a private discussion on Economic Governance with the President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet along with other MEPs working on the legislation. Mr Trichet then attended the quarterly 'Monetary Dialogue' hearing before the ECON Committee from 15.00 - 17.00, followed by a short press conference with Sharon after which the committee continued with further debates.
Directly after the Committee, ALDE ECON met briefly to discuss the upcoming vote on the Executive Director positions for the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs). Sharon expressed the view that all three candidates performed well in their hearings in the EP, and she considered that they would do a very good job.
Tuesday
Sharon chaired the ECON Committee at 9am, which began with an exchange of views with EU Commissioner for Competition, Joaquín Almunia, where he discussed reform of EU state aid rules on services of general economic interest, and of the banking sector. He answered several questions from Sharon including on the competition aspects of 'silos' on exchanges and clearing houses. He made a very positive statement that from a competition aspect open access, not silos, was the correct approach.
At 11.00, Committee continued with a public hearing on Deposit Guarantee Schemes for banks. During the financial crisis the EU rules on a minimum deposit guarantee were rapidly revised and harmonised to stop money draining from one country to another in search of higher guarantees - this happened to the UK for example when Ireland increased their banking guarantee to 100% of deposits (and in part has aggravated Ireland's banking problems subsequently). Sharon was instrumental in getting some important review clauses into that legislation and now these are being examined along with other updating.
At 13.00, Sharon had a meeting with Gary Gensler, Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to discuss derivatives, and compare the work being done the other side of the Atlantic and in the EP. Sharon has had several such meetings already. At 14.00, they continued their discussion in an open meeting in advance of the resumption of Committee, where fellow Members of the Committee also put questions to Mr Gensler. Several of Sharon's questions drew interesting answers and the fact that the meeting, like all ECON meetings, was web-streamed and therefore available after the event is useful. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/homeCom.do?language=EN&body=ECON
At 15.00, the regular Committee resumed with a series of votes, namely on supplementary supervision of financial conglomerates (companies which have both a banking and an insurance part), for which Sharon is shadow rapporteur, so the lead MEP from ALDE (the European Liberal group); European contract law, a directive aimed at simplifying the way we shop across borders, on which Sharon is also shadow rapporteur; and the ESA Executive Director positions, for which Sharon is rapporteur! The Committee voted in favour of all three candidates by a large majority, so that became the recommendation of ECON when it comes to all MEPs voting in Plenary on Thursday. Sharon's amendments on financial conglomerates and contract law were also passed.
The Committee then went on to discuss other dossiers, such as Investor Compensation Schemes and budgetary surveillance in the euro area. Sharon made a statement concerning the allegations in the press about MEPs being paid to submit amendments. The matter is being treated very seriously and an investigation is underway at Parliament level, meanwhile Sharon has instructed checking of amendments on the ECON dossiers.
Wednesday
Sharon attended ALDE group at 9.00, where they discussed the ESA ED vote in Plenary the following day, as well as the report on amending the Lisbon Treaty to allow for making the Stability Mechanism a permanent feature, rather than a temporary measure. After Group, Sharon returned to the office to work on the Economic Governance package with her assistant Constance.
At 13.00 she had a meeting with the Commission on macroeconomic imbalances, one aspect of the "6 pack" which is what the six legislative dossiers in the Economic Governance package have been nicknamed. Looking at macroeconomic imbalances is a new type of surveillance to complement the stability and growth pact (which deals with fiscal balance). This is one of the areas of largest political divergence and hard to establish the optimal indicators to check - what is good and what is bad spending, how should it be measured, how do you get convergence. Sharon has already spoken at several Eurostat and ECB conferences on the statistical aspects of Economic Governance and so the Commission wanted to explore some ideas with her, find out more on the debate in Committee and also talk over some legal base and procedural matters.
At 15.00, she went to the Hemicycle to vote on the Treaty change, this vote unusually being held on a Wednesday of a mini-plenary week because of the European Council later in the week.
At 16.30, Sharon attended a meeting in President of the EP, Jerzy Buzek´s office with Prime Minister of Hungary, Victor Orban, and the Hungarian Finance Minister and Ambassador to discuss Economic Governance; and afterwards she joined the rapporteurs of the "6 pack" on Economic Governance to discuss compromise amendments for one of the packages. This is where the MEPs working on a dossier try to bring together common themes and see if there can be an agreed common amendment which is acceptable to all or a majority. There are over 2,000 amendments on the Economic Governance package, so this is a lengthy process and meetings have been going on practically every day.
Thursday
Sharon worked on various matters including the presentation of the ESA ED candidates for plenary, looking at economic governance compromises and collating information for the afternoon´s tripartite meeting with MPs and peers from the UK Parliament, where they discussed Economic Governance, the Single Market, and the EU budget.
At 11.00 she went to the Hemicycle for the regular session of voting. Ahead of the votes on the Executive Member of the ECB and the ESA Executive Directors, Sharon took the floor to explain the procedure and that the ECON Committee recommended voting positively on all of them, which the large majority of MEPs did in the subsequent secret ballot, so the candidates have now all been appointed.
In the afternoon, Sharon attended the tripartite meeting with representatives from the Houses of Lords and Commons, and other MEPs.
Friday
Sharon travelled from Brussels to London. She met with Paul Braithwaite of Equitable Members Action Group. Sharon has been a key player at the European level on the matter of Equitable Life and still has concerns about some of the policy holders not getting compensation because they were deemed to be overpaid in earlier bonuses. She wonders why the formula worked out for later policyholders is not simply applied to everyone as that would take account of any over-bonusing.
She then went to an event by the Institute of Chartered Accountants on the Future of European Finance at which she was keynote speaker. Sharon gave an update on current legislative work and the view of the UK in Europe, then answered questions over a range of subjects including bailing out Portugal and the Euro, achieving transatlantic convergence in regulation, the new European Supervisory Authorities, Corporate Governance, Pensions, recognition of professions cross border, banking capital, derivatives, central counterparty clearing, foreign exchange and audit reform. After this, Sharon hopped on the tube to Baker Street to meet with the CEO of BDO, an Accountancy firm, for further discussion on the Commission´s Green Paper on audit.
Some helpful terms
MEP = Member of the European Parliament
ALDE = Liberal and Democrat MEPs from all EU countries (there are 84 in total, of which 12 are from the UK)
ECON = Committee on economic and financial issues which Sharon chairs
ALDE ECON = Meeting for Liberal members of the ECON Committee
ESA = New supervisory authorities being introduced to oversee regulation Europe-wide
ECB = European Central Bank
Trialogue = When representatives of the Parliament, the Commission and the Council (national governments) come together to discuss a piece of legislation