What Sharon did last week (11th - 15th July)
Monday
On Monday, Sharon left her house at 5.30am to get the Eurostar to Paris to speak at the launch of ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority. She spoke alongside Commissioner Barnier and Chair of ESMA, Steven Maijoor, about ESMA´s new, important tasks in regulating the European markets (see speech). Commissioner Barnier took the opportunity to launch an attack on Credit Rating Agencies as well. While CRAs are not perfect by any means, Sharon resists this populist line as she thinks ignoring more fundamental problems is a mistake. Indeed, last year she told Commissioner Barnier in a plenary speech that she did not want ratings that were convenient, be that for investment banks or central banks. The speeches were followed by a press conference, where Sharon made her view on Credit Rating Agencies clear, with several of her remarks on this and other issues being quoted in British and continental press.
After speaking at the press conference, Sharon caught the train to Brussels, arriving at 4.30pm at the Parliament. She then caught up with emails and prepared for the Short Selling trialogue, which began at 6.30pm. This was attended by Commissioner Barnier and the Polish finance minister. This high-level presence helped move the agenda forward, though there is still more negotiation to be held in the Autumn.
Tuesday
At 8am, Sharon and the Vice Chairs of ECON attended the first confidential meeting with Jean-Claude Trichet in his capacity as head of the European Systemic Risk Board. It is in the Regulation which set up the ESRB that such confidential briefings take place at least twice a year.
At 9am Sharon chaired the ECON Committee, which began with an exchange of views with Competition Commissioner, Joaquín Almunia (see photo). Members of the Committee were particularly interested in the credibility of Credit Rating Agencies, currently with regards to their rating of European banks and government debt. The majority shared what Sharon considers to be the populist view. Commissioner Almunia answered much more in line with Sharon´s view, as Trichet has also done.
At 11am, Sharon had a private meeting with Commissioner Almunia to discuss upcoming issues in the Autumn, exchanges and the progress on the EMIR legislation. She then returned to chairing Committee, where they discussed collective redress and wider competition issues.
At 12.30pm, Sharon had a meeting with Angela Knight, head of the British Bankers Association, where they discussed crisis resolution and convergence with financial regulation in the US.
At 3pm, Sharon was called on by Mark Sobel, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury. He gave an update on where the US is on implementing Basel II, 2.5 and III, and asked Sharon to update him on EMIR and other EU legislation. Despite media reports to the contrary, there is good cooperation between European and American counterparts, and while sometimes one side might be moving at a slightly different pace to the other, they are both working hard to create effective financial regulation to avoid future crises.
At 4pm, Sharon had a meeting with the Polish Secretary of State for Finance, Ludwik Kotecki, to discuss the latest on Economic Governance.
Wednesday
At 9.30am on Wednesday, Sharon had a meeting with AFME, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, on the sovereign debt crisis and also on post-trade transparency and reporting, and how this might need to differ for less liquid assets. This will be covered in the MiFID review. Sharon is very interested in how to categorise liquidity and sees potential for this in other areas if it works.
Sharon spent the rest of the morning working on papers and sorting the vast heaps of paper in her office, ready for the summer break.
At 1.30pm the head of the ECON Secretariat came to see Sharon to discuss the European Semester report.
At 2pm, Sharon attended a meeting on the transport of eurocash with Sophie Auconie, the rapporteur of the report. There is an inter-institutional battle going on with this file and Sharon will not give way to Commission bullying.
At 3pm, Sharon chaired a trialogue on the increase in capital in the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), for which she is also the rapporteur because any dossier that the Groups will not take up has to be done by the chair!
After this, Sharon returned to the office to go over the allocation of competences on the mortgage credit report which gives IMCO enhanced cooperation, with ECON as lead committee. There are an ever increasing number of reports which use "Rule 50" of the EP Rules of Procedure to share reports in this way. Each agreement sets a precedent and everyone seems to want to get on ECON turf without understanding all of the work that ECON do, so Sharon has to be tough in these negotiations.
Thursday
On Thursday morning, Sharon met with a Swedish Liberal who was looking for political advice concerning the UK.
At 10.30am, Sharon met with Malcolm Harbour to go over the final details for the division of competences on the mortgages dossier, and sign the joint letter to that effect, a satisfactory solution having been finally thrashed out. The report will now be officially tabled, the rapporteurs will make their presentations of their draft reports in the Autumn, and then Members can get to work on amendments!
At 11.30, Sharon and her assistant Adam met with the Secretariat to go over the draft programme for the EP conference which they are organising under the Eurofinance week umbrella in November.
At 12.30pm, Lib Dem MEP Andrew Duff called in the office to get an update from Sharon on various financial matters, such as the state of play on Economic Governance.
For the remainder of the afternoon, Sharon answered emails, gave an interview over the phone to the FT, and wrote a press release on the bank stress tests, whose results were due the following day.
Friday
On Friday, Sharon travelled back to the UK, arriving in her constituency office in Berkhamsted at lunchtime. She caught up with her team, and got to work preparing her views on the results of the bank stress tests.
Saturday
Sharon attended a Liberal Democrat Barbeque in Tunbridge Wells and gave a speech and did a Q&A on sovereign debt and Greece.
Looking ahead: 18 - 23 July
On Monday Sharon visited Lotus Renault GP. Formula 1 racing is important to the UK and also the South East with Lotus Renault GP in Oxfordshire, Maclaren in Woking and Red Bull in Milton Keynes. See press release
On Tuesday, Sharon attended a ministerial meeting in the Department of Business (BIS) and was asked to give the inside view on the Greek situation and sovereign debt crisis. She then went to Brussels to be on hand for the release of CRD lV on Wednesday and press engagement for the Eurozone summit on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Sharon gave an interview for the Today Programme which went out at 7.10am and then attended to press releases on CRD IV and the sovereign debt crisis. After that, she made further onslaughts on the paperwork in her office and sorting out the documents that had to be worked on over the summer recess. Sharon is hoping to get back to the UK on Thursday, but has to cover the Eurozone summit.
Summer recess
The Parliament´s official business has stopped for recess until 29 August. During recess, Sharon will be making several constituency visits, doing fact finding and thinking on financial legislation, including the Capital Requirements Directive (IV). What Sharon Did will return in September!