What Sharon Did Last Week (4th - 8th April)
Monday
On Monday, Sharon travelled from the UK to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, leaving at 6.30am to arrive early afternoon. After preparatory work for meetings and dealing with committee administration she attended the regular Monday afternoon meetings, starting at 15.30 with ALDE Group where the situation in the Middle East was discussed in depth, as well as the problems currently being faced by Japan following the earthquake.
Next came the UK Lib Dems´ meeting from 17.30 to 18.30 and then she chaired three consecutive sessions of ECON Committee business from 19.00 to 22.30. First there was a Committee discussion of the European and Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) which will regulate the derivatives market and make it more transparent. Also discussed was a response to a consultation from the Commission on Audit, which has particular relevance for financial institutions. Sharon is very active on both of these matters. She is the lead for the ALDE group on EMIR and has tabled 159 amendments in ECON as well as being the rapporteur on the issue in the Legal Affairs Committee. Likewise she has already filed amendments on the audit report in Legal Affairs and will be doing further amendments in ECON.
At 20.30, there was a special committee meeting with Commissioner Semeta where MEPs questioned him on taxation and the common consolidated corporate tax base. Then finally at 21.30 there was a Coordinators meeting where the administration of the committee is agreed. An important agenda item again was the progress of the Economic Governance package with the rapporteurs and at which it was agreed to go for a committee vote on 19th April.
Tuesday
Tuesday started with a key debate in plenary on the outcome of the European Council Conclusions. Key items were Libya and the treaty change and economic governance issues including the permanent bail out mechanism. Sharon spoke on the economic matters including pricing of the Economic Stability Mechanism and the exposure of German banks to Irish banks. The debate was followed by votes at 12.00.
From 14.00 - 16.00 there was a Conference of Committee Chairs meeting, at which Sharon had to speak on matters relating to the ECON committee in an exchange of views with the Hungarian Europe Minister. In fact almost all the priorities for the Hungarian Presidency are ECON matters and this is a state of play that looks likely to continue for sometime.
At 15.30 Sharon left the Conference of Committee chairs meeting to attend a meeting with the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy to discuss the latest positions on Economic Governance with the coordinators of the political groups.
At 17.00, Sharon had a catch-up meeting with Commissioner Rehn followed by a another meeting with him and the rapporteurs on economic governance.
At 18.00, Sharon attended ALDE group, where Commissioner Potocnic, the European Commissioner for the Environment updated the group on the Commission Environment policies and fielded questions from Members.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, Sharon was having difficulty breathing so had to make a first stop at the medical centre and then send assistant Adam off to the pharmacy with prescriptions. Disobeying instructions to rest she then had a meeting with the ECON Secretariat on Financial Conglomerates, ahead of the trialogue the following day.
At 10.30, she met with the Polish Minister for Regional Development. The Poles take over the rotating Presidency in July and they wanted to discuss with Sharon the economic benefits of cohesion policy that are felt not just in the Member States receiving funds but also in other Member States with which that engenders more business.
At 12.00, Sharon went to the hemicycle for votes which included the Grelier report on fisheries and the ENVI committee's resolution on the DHA health claim in Baby milk in Plenary. After that Sharon worked on economic governance issues and also checked through the documents for the next day's trialogue.
At 16.00, Sharon met with the Hungarian Presidency to discuss the Financial Conglomerates trialogue the following day. Sharon explained how she would conduct the trialogue as she chairs all those meetings and this is the first one on ECON subjects under the Hungarian Presidency so they will not have done any before. For financial conglomerates she has her hands full as she is also the ALDE shadow for the subject and several of the amendments that Parliament passed and that the Council do not like originate from her.
At 17.30, Sharon met with Malcolm Harbour, Chair of IMCO (Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee) to discuss the recently published Commission proposal for a directive on mortgages credit. They were trying to reach an agreement on which parts belonged to consumer protection and were possibly within the IMCO remit, and which parts belonged to prudential regulation and investment and therefore belong to ECON. As often is the case it is not completely straight forward.
Thursday
On Thursday, at 9.00 there was a preparatory meeting of the Parliament negotiating team for the Financial Conglomerates trialogue (this always involves Sharon as chair, the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs). Then a productive first trialogue took place with the Hungarian Presidency representing the Council and also with a representative from the Commission. They went through all the controversial points to take note of the concerns that were behind objections and provisionally explored the fact that on some of them there may be drafting solutions. Some exchange of 'non-papers' (which basically means ideas or suggestions without any status or commitment) will now take place before the next trialogue.
At 12.00, Sharon went to the Hemicycle to vote for the final time this week. At 13.30, she got the coach to Frankfurt to catch a flight to Budapest where she was giving a keynote address to finance ministers and central bank governors at the Informal ECOFIN in Hungary, writing her speech en route!
In Budapest Sharon had a very exciting journey to her hotel with police escort, flashing lights and sirens then at 20.00 Sharon had dinner with others attending the informal ECOFIN.
Friday
On Friday, Sharon attended the Informal ECOFIN Council meeting in Hungary. With the announcement the previous day that Portugal was asking for an EU bailout to help them get through their sovereign debt crisis, this became the focus of the Ministers´ meetings in the morning. Sharon also found herself in demand for comment to the media.
Sharon attended a lunch for her and the other keynote speakers for the afternoon session who were Professor Lamfalussy, Jaques De Larosiere, the chairs of the new European Supervisory Authorities and Jean-Claude Trichet in his capacity as chair of the new European Systemic Risk Board. They then all moved to the ECOFIN session where they had been asked to speak about supervision, market development and bank stress tests. Sharon's speech was well received by the other speakers and they thanked her for being very direct and forceful. She was then invited to join the Ministers and Central Bankers in the 'family photograph' and whisked off in her third and final convoy to the airport where she was able to exchange a few words with George Osborne before the flight home.