What Sharon Did Last Week (28th March - 1st April)
Sunday
Sharon travelled over to Brussels on the Eurostar from the UK arriving at 21.00.
Monday
Sharon attended the morning session of ESAC´s 7th meeting from 10.00 - 12.00 in the Berlaymont Commission building. ESAC is the European Statistical Advisory Committee, and Sharon is the representative from the European Parliament, appointed after her work on various statistical dossiers in the last Parliament. Other representatives include high level people from national statistical offices and Eurostat.
Among the agenda items for discussion was the fact that statistical budgets are in general being cut and so 'negative priorities' have to be set. Also being discussed was the statistician's role in economic governance, a role that is becoming increasingly important. Sharon also took the opportunity to discuss statistical aspects of the Economic Governance legislation with the Director General of Eurostat, Walter Radermacher.
At 14.00, she walked across the road to another Commission building, Charlemagne, to give an opening keynote speech at the Brussels Tax Forum, at Commissioner Semeta´s invitation. Sharon gave a general overview of tax matters before turning to the main theme for the year which was taxation of financial services, such as the proposed Financial Transaction Tax.
Sharon explained that the Parliament´s majority view in a recent non-legislative report was in favour of a Global FTT, but if that was not possible, then there should be an EU-level tax, although the report also called for impact assessments of FTT and alternatives such as a financial activities tax. However Sharon also gave her personal view that there were some potential problems with an FTT, such as how assets would be treated on an equal basis and rather importantly who would qualify for exemptions.
After her speech Sharon did a press conference with Commissioner Semeta, during which Sharon also queried whether an EU-only FTT would impair the use of the Euro as a reserve currency because it would mean, for example, a developing country using the Euro to make payments would pay two transaction taxes. This featured as the top item on Belgian TV news the next day.
After walking back to the Parliament, Sharon gave an interview for the BBC´s World Business Report on the eurozone crisis and Portugal's sovereign debt. At 18.00, Sharon and her assistant Constance went to ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt´s office to discuss the Economic Governance package with him and two ALDE rapporteurs.
Tuesday
Sharon chaired a meeting with EUROSTAT Director General and deputy and representatives from national statistics offices from several Member States. Among the discussions was the role of national statistical offices in Economic Governance and interaction with national Courts of Auditors, the upcoming Regulation on a European System of National and Regional Accounts.
Next, Sharon attended the UK Lib Dem MEPs meeting which examined the plenary agenda for next week and under AOB Sharon asked for an update on the "amendments for cash" scandal from Diana Wallis, in her role Vice President of the Parliament and champion for transparency, and Sharon updated Diana on the state of play with respect to the issue in her committee.
Sharon also explained the background to what she will say at the Key Debate on European Council Conclusions at the Plenary Session in Strasbourg next week, which will include her views on the unsustainability of Germany´s continued desire to charge high interest rates to Ireland following their EU bailout and the imposition of a 3% supplement over cost in the proposed permanent mechanism. Also discussed was a proposal in the constitutional affairs committee, explained by Andrew Duff, that a small additional number of MEPs should be voted for using transnational lists - which met with mixed views!
Sharon then went to an ALDE working group which was discussing the Single Market, and a directive on public services. They also discussed a draft oral question to the Commission demanding more effective stress tests for banks in the next round, as the previous ones were not rigorous enough, and that the process lacked transparency. Sharon redrafted some parts and agreed to have her name on it. Sharon then had a catch-up meeting with Ed Webber, the Liberal Democrat EU Special Advisor who is the Lib Dem MEPs´ liaison person in Westminster and comes out to Brussels for one week each month.
At 16.00, Sharon had another meeting with Guy Verhofstadt on Economic Governance, with a wider group of ALDE ECON members. After popping back to the office to catch up on emails, Sharon went to ALDE group, at which Commissioner Barnier was speaking about the Commission's proposals to deepen the Single Market. He thanked Sharon for her work and contributions.
Wednesday
Sharon attended ALDE group in the morning, then started work on her amendments for Deposit Guarantee Schemes (DGS), for which the deadline was the following day. A key point is whether the scheme should be pre-funded or whether it should be allowed to be post-funded like the UK scheme. Many countries doubt that a post-funded scheme would work, although they do not question the UK scheme as such.
Sharon has linked the level of post-funding that is allowed to the average capital level. She has also put in other amendments, including on the way in which the risk factors are worked out because these do not work for mutuals. She also thought that some of the other factors were not right and should be capable of being revised rather than fixed in stone (Sharon has a reputation for getting stuck into the mathematical annexes).
At 13.15, she had a meeting with the Yorkshire Building Society to discuss DGS, capital requirements and other legislation; and then Deloitte Global came to see her to share their views on accounting and audit, following the recent Commission Green Paper on Audit. They had already read her amendments to the report in the legal affairs committee. For the remainder of the day, Sharon continued work on Deposit Guarantee Schemes and Economic Governance.
Thursday
Sharon began the day by finalising her final amendments for Deposit Guarantee Schemes with her assistant, Adam, ahead of the midday deadline. She then worked on her remarks for the evening's event. In the early afternoon, Sharon flew to Frankfurt for the launch of EIOPA, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, one of the newly set up European Supervisory Authorities.
Sharon spoke alongside Chair of EIOPA, Gabriel Bernadino, and Commissioner Barnier, outlining the need for close cooperation with the Parliament, and the need to allocate sufficient resources for the challenging tasks ahead. Sharon also referred to her long engagement on Solvency 2 issues with CEIOPS (Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors) which preceded EIOPA, and that although sometimes she had 'told them off' (a reference to their stepping beyond the prudential levels set in the directive) they had always listened and explained, and she was confident a good and strong working relationship would continue.
Friday
Sharon flew to London, arriving at midday. She called in at the National Liberal Club, where she briefly met the Secretary General of Liberal International and the Irish ambassador to Macedonia. She then went to the European Banking Authority for a banking 'rerun' of the previous evening, this time speaking alongside Chair of the EBA Andrea Enria and, again, Commissioner Barnier. This time she spoke of the need for really robust stress tests with much more transparency, and the role that those played in obtaining a real recovery in the sovereign crisis - an issue that she did not consider would be settled until there was a better understanding by ordinary citizens of the interconnection of banks with each other and sovereigns, and that it really was a shared crisis, not just a matter of a few allegedly reckless countries.