What Sharon Did Last Week (20th - 24th June)
Monday
Sharon had travelled over to Brussels on Sunday night to be here for Monday morning in order to speak with colleagues and get ready for the deciding week for the Economic Governance package. On Monday morning, she had several phone calls and meetings with the rapporteurs and the ECON Secretariat about all the possible options.
At 2pm, Sharon joined her ALDE ECON colleagues in a meeting to discuss the vote on Economic Governance; which groups were voting which way, how solid those votes were and what the outcome of a negative vote would mean for the package. The aim of the Parliament's amendments to the economic governance package as a whole is to ensure transparency and credibility of European finances. We want to stop the inter-governmental backscratching and deals of the past and restore confidence to European markets.
At the same time, the ECOFIN Council was meeting, so Finance Ministers from each EU Member State met in Luxembourg and were also discussing the final text agreed by the Parliament, the Hungarian Presidency of the Council, and the Commission at the end of last week´s epic trialogue on Economic Governance. The rapporteurs, Secretariat, policy advisors and Sharon as Chair met again in the evening to discuss next steps.
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning, ECON committee met again to look over the outcome of the ECOFIN Council. It became clear that ECOFIN had not signed up to all the elements of the package agreed at the end of the trialogue, what has become known as the "3am text"! Neither had they agreed to a final extra point on the voting procedure that the Parliament had maintained was needed, but which was not conceded by the Presidency in the 3am package. Nevertheless ministers had agreed to 98% of the text, with both the EP and the Council having made many compromises during the 70+ hours of trialogues, but there were still some areas of divergence: the EP wants increased use of reversed qualified majority voting (RQMV) to make warnings and sanctions more automatic, but the Council, with the French being the main opposers, were not happy with this.
The Ministers also removed a reference to symmetrical indicators in the macroeconomic scoreboard, although in return they conceded a further amendment to a recital.
Another sticking point had been the proposal that Finance Ministers have the opportunity to appear before the EP for an exchange of views. The press have unhelpfully presented this as "hauling Ministers before the EP for a grilling" but the idea was simply open up the debate on public finances to the general public. It would be an invitation to finance ministers - which they may or may not accept - to come and state their case in a public arena. If taxpayers end up footing the bill for EU bailouts surely it is right that they should be allowed to hear how and why these decisions are being taken. This had now been agreed with an additional amendment clarifying that it was a voluntary appearance.
Nevertheless the RQMV and symmetry points were wanted by different sections of the Parliament and Sharon was concerned that without either it would be hard to build a majority and the prospect of the Parliament voting down some of the reports was a real possibility. Sharon managed to get majority approval of the committee to proceed with the vote in plenary, based on the 3am text, which included symmetry, and also with an extra RQMV, but it was agreed that the final legislative resolutions should not be voted so further last minute deals could, possibly, be reached with Council to achieve a first reading agreement in July.
At 10.30am, the Premier of Bermuda, Paula Cox, appeared before the Committee to have an exchange of views about Solvency II and how it affects sovereign states. At 11.30am, the Hungarian Minister of Finance came to present a summary of the Hungarian Presidency´s achievements in ECON over the past 6 months.
Once back in the office, Sharon caught up with the team and continued working on Economic Governance, while answering questions on other ongoing files, such as short-selling, EMIR and deposit guarantee schemes.
At 1pm, Sharon gave a live phone interview for Radio 4 on the eurozone crisis and what should be done about Greece´s economy.
At 2.30pm, Sharon was called on by Peter Norman, the author of acclaimed book Plumbers and Visionaries, who is now working with a think-tank on financial services and has also recently published his second book on clearing and settlement called 'the Risk Controllers'.
For the remainder of the afternoon, Sharon liaised with colleagues over Economic Governance, spent a lot of time explaining and tackling procedural hurdles, wrote her two minute speech for the plenary debate on Wednesday and answered urgent emails.
Wednesday
Wednesday started with an 8.30am meeting with the Lib Dem delegation. Sharon updated the delegation on the state of play with Economic Governance; George Lyon explained the issues around CAP reform; and Chris Davies informed the delegation of climate change. All of these items were due to be voted on Thursday, though the emissions reduction vote had to be postponed to the next plenary session as time ran out.
At 10.30am, Sharon attended ALDE group, where they had further debate on Economic Governance, at which it was agreed that ALDE would support the 3am text plus the extra RQMV. Sharon explained even then the vote would be very tight, at this stage she calculated a majority in single figures which in a chamber of 736 which unpredictable absences was rattling everyone's nerves. Also discussed was the 2012 EU budget. The UK Lib Dem position is that there should be a freeze in the 2012 budget, in line with austerity measures being implemented in the UK and around the EU currently.
At 12.30pm, Sharon met with a new Financial Services attaché from the UK Representation and the new EP liaison officer for ECON.
At 1pm, Sharon and her assistant Siobhán met with Aon, a global insurance intermediary, about an issue arising from the Solvency II implementing measures, which doesn't seem to be following the agreed level 1 text. The matter was not new to Sharon as she is familiar with Solvency ll and has intervened on the implementing measures more than once, although at this stage they are still drafts. Unfortunately, Sharon then got a call from one of the Economic Governance rapporteurs at 1.30pm for an urgent meeting, so she had to leave halfway through but not before she had made some suggestions as to how it could be tackled.
Running through everything Sharon was now making sure that pledged votes for the Economic Governance package added up to a majority - which still looked tight. At 3pm, Sharon attended the opening of the Plenary for the debate on the upcoming European Council, and Economic Governance. At the start of the session, there was a request from GUE (European United Left) and the Greens that the vote on Economic Governance be postponed to a later plenary session. This proposal had been expected by Sharon, but was rejected by the majority of members. The debate on Economic Governance started at 7pm and went on until 10.30pm. As chair, Sharon stayed throughout.
Thursday
On Thursday, the negotiating team had a catch-up meeting at 8am, followed by more number-crunching in the morning, during which Sharon spoke to several colleagues to gauge their voting intentions. As she said it was now more like running an election campaign and she was intent on 'getting her vote out'. Finally at midday, members made their way to the Hemicycle, and after bidding farewell to the outgoing Vice President Stavros Lambrinidis MEP who is returning to Greece to become the new Foreign Minister, they started voting.
At the end of the first report of the Economic Governance six pack (the Ferreira report), Sharon stood up and asked that they postpone the vote on adopting the legislative act - the very last vote on each of the reports - until July, giving the EP more time to negotiate with the Council, and find solutions for the remaining "2%" of the package. The Socialists, in their latest procedural manoeuvre, now asked that the final vote be taken - which might have closed the door on the first reading agreement because the Parliament had inserted the symmetry wording that differed from Council. Again the majority of the House agreed with Sharon´s proposal, so it was agreed that the final vote be delayed. The remaining 5 reports were then voted on with all 5 being adopted, all with final vote being delayed until July. Some of the votes were close which means that Sharon is already focussing on how to get a majority in July as well as how to bridge the gap with Council - factors that pull in the opposite direction.
Votes continued after this, and then Sharon joined the rapporteurs for part of a press conference, but she had to leave early to chair a trialogue from 2pm - 6pm on short selling. Good progress is being made on this file, but at least one more meeting of the EP, Council and Commission is needed.
After the trialogue ended, Sharon returned to the office to have a catch-up with the team, and answer emails.
Friday
On Friday, Sharon got the Eurostar back to the UK in time to get to her constituency office by the afternoon where, after answering some queries and doing more press interviews, she headed home.