What Sharon Did Last Week (27th June - 1st July)
Monday
On Monday, Sharon caught her usual 8.30am Eurostar from St Pancras, arriving at the European Parliament in Brussels at midday. After catching up with her team, she made several phone calls to the Economic Governance rapporteurs and the leader of the ALDE group, Guy Verhofstadt, to update on state of play and gauge sentiment for how to move forward with the six pack this week.
At 3pm, Sharon chaired the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, and first item on the agenda was the Green Paper on the future of VAT. The European Parliament does not have co-decision rights on tax issues, but it is producing an own initiative report, in order to influence the proceedings.
At 5pm, Sharon, along with several other UK MEPs, went to meet Lord Green, the Minister of State for Trade and Investment, for a general discussion on EU issues.
At 6pm, Sharon chaired the final part of ECON discussing Sharon´s own report on cross-border insolvency proceedings in EU company law. Members had an uncontentious debate: Sharon is largely supportive of the Socialists´amendments, as well as suggestions put forward by the Greens which she has incorporated into her draft. One of her main concerns is making sure that insolvency laws do not undermine living wills, and to press for valid cross-border living wills.
In the evening, Sharon attended a Commissioners´dinner, with Commissioners Potocnik, Rehn and Kallas, along with Guy Verhofstadt and fellow ALDE MEP, Carl Haglund. The main discussion was the state of play on economic governance.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, Sharon began the day with a meeting with Guy to debate the next steps for the six pack, following the difficult vote last week in Plenary.
At 9.45am, Sharon and her assistant Siobhán met with the European Mortgage Federation to discuss the Directive on Credit Agreements Relating to Residential Property (mortage credit).
At 11am, Sharon and her assistant Adam attended the latest trialogue on Short Selling. Good progress was made with the Commission and Council, but more negotiations will be needed to complete the report. The amendments will be voted on in Plenary next week, but as with the economic governance package last week, the final vote on the adoption of a legislative act will not be done at this time.
At 12.30pm, Sharon excused herself briefly from the trialogue which was still ongoing to attend the Lib Dem MEP AGM, at which positions of Leader, Deputy Leader, Treasurer, and Whip were nominated.
Sharon then returned to the short selling negotiating table, and then at 3pm, she chaired ALDE´s Working Group A&B, with EMIR, short selling and Conglomerates on the agenda.
At 4.30pm, Sharon met with the Polish Ambassador as Poland take the reins on the Presidency of the Council. He was meeting with each Chair of a Committee in the EP separately to discuss priorities and cooperation.
At 5.15pm, Sharon had to leave that meeting to update the ALDE group at large on the outcome of the earlier Working Group. She raised the issue of correlation tables, highlighting that ECON insist on them for their dossiers.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, Sharon attended ALDE group where food labelling was being discussed. ALDE have successfully ensured that the producers retain the choice over point of origin labelling.
At 12.30pm, Sharon was called on by the European Actuarial Consultative Group to discuss Solvency II.
Over lunchtime, Sharon spoke with several Members and Secretariat staff on possible options on Economic Governance, as well as the Hungarian Finance Minister.
At 3pm, the newly appointed President of the Law Society came to see Sharon to introduce himself and discuss concerns on collective redress.
At 3.45pm, Sharon met with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) who are carrying out a survey on macroeconomic and macroprudential policies in the Euro Area and key EU policies such as the Single Market, financial regulation and labour mobility.
At 4.45pm, Sharon chaired an event organised by the Financial Reporting Council entitled "Effective Company Stewardship in Europe- Enhanced Corporate Auditing". These last few meetings were a bit frought as Sharon was receiving texts and calls from all sides on economic governance.
At 6.40pm, Sharon moved on to make some opening remarks at the European Forum for Manufacturing´s event on a Financial Framework for Manufacturing.
Thursday
On Thursday, Sharon started the day by chairing a Monetary Dialogue with the President of the ECB, Jean Claude Trichet, where the Greek economic crisis was the most popular topic for discussion.
Sharon had hoped to attend a workshop on the upcoming Securities Law Directive for which she is the ALDE shadow, but due to tight schedules, she could not go, as immediately after the Dialogue, Sharon and the economic governance rapporteurs met the Council and Commission for a final attempt at negotiating the six pack before next week´s Plenary. Unfortunately a deal was not reached, despite efforts on both sides, and therefore this will now be postponed to the September plenary, under the Polish Presidency.
At 1pm, Sharon and her assistant Constance had lunch with the Danish Minister for Finance to discuss Danish ECON priorities during their Presidency which begins in January 2012, which include CRD4 and crisis management.
In the afternoon, Sharon had further meetings with Guy Verhofstadt and worked on other dossiers, such as EMIR and short selling.
Friday
On Friday, Sharon travelled back to London on an early morning Eurostar to appear on the BBC2 Daily Politics Show to give her views on the Greek crisis. Sharon made the point that if Greece were to leave the eurozone, it would be bad for everybody, as many European banks, including those in the UK, are exposed to Greek banks, or to other European banks who are also exposed to Greek banks. See clip here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13991880
The weekend continued with more calls on economic governance...