What Sharon Did Last Week (5th - 9th September)
Monday
On Monday, Sharon left her house at 7.30am to travel to Cambridge where she was speaking at the UACES (University Association of Contemporary European Studies) event. Sharon formed part of the first plenary session entitled "Europeand the Global Financial Crisis".
When her panel was over, Sharon travelled down to London and got on a Eurostar to Brussels, arriving at 5.30pm. She travelled with fellow British MEPs Andrew Duff, Vicky Ford and Kay Swinburne, giving them the opportunity to discuss important issues in the Parliament, including the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD4). Once in Brussels, Sharon went to the office and caught up with her assistant Constance on the week´s upcoming events.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, Sharon met with Olle Schmidt, Swedish Liberal MEP and his team to discuss the trialogue on short-selling for which Olle is shadow rapporteur for ALDE. At 11am Sharon chaired the high-level trialogue, which was attended by Polish Undersecretary of State for Finance, Wieslaw Szczuka representing the Council and Commissioner Barnier representing the Commission.
At 2pm, Sharon met with Handelsbanken, a large Nordic bank, to discuss the proposal for CRD4 which was published just before recess.
In the afternoon, Sharon took some phone calls and answered emails on a range of issues. At 5pm she went to ALDE group where they were discussing the state of play on the economic governance "six pack".
After Group, Sharon attended leaving drinks for fellow ALDE ECON MEP, Dirk Sterckx, who is retiring.
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, Sharon met with Ed Webber, the EU liaison officer for the Liberal Democrat party to discuss the Eurozone crisis and other issues.
She then worked in the office on the economic governance package and possible ideas for compromise with Council. The Parliament is still aiming to take this to the second Plenary session in September for a vote.
At lunchtime, Sharon spoke to the Head of the ECON Secretariat about various issues. At 2pm, Sharon met informally with the rapporteurs of the economic governance package on fellow Liberal MEP Sylvie Goulard´s request.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent doing paperwork and answering emails in the office.
Thursday
On Thursday morning, Sharon chaired two sessions of the Monetary Dialogue: the first on the European Semester, and the second on the upcoming change in ECB president.
At 13.00, Sharon met with one of her constituents, a 6th former who is carrying out a project entitled "Should Britain stay in the EU?". Sharon said that of course it should and gave him a run down of the ways in which the UK benefits from being part of the European Union (billions of pounds worth of trade each year, UK citizens being able to freely move around and live in other EU countries, and free healthcare abroad, to name but a few).
At 1.30pm, Sharon and her assistant Siobhán went to Gare du Midi to catch the Eurostar to London where Sharon was participating in two panels at the Leveraged Finance 2011 event: one on Basel III / CRD4 and the other on CLOs (Collateralised Loan Obligations).
Friday
On Friday, Sharon was the guest speaker at an event set up by think-tank Reform and Ernst & Young, entitled "A new role for government and financial services: Regulating financial services". She emphasised that despite the UK´s history of good financial regulation, its previous boasting of light touch supervision had been resented in Europe, and explained the hostile attitude towards the UK in financial services.
Sharon then travelled to Canary Wharf, having a meeting with Blackrock en route!
At 12pm, KPMG hosted a conference entitled "A Forum with Sharon Bowles" at which Sharon spoke candidly about the reality of the Eurozone crisis, and what it meant for the UK which is heavily implicated through its exposure to the sovereign debt of Eurozone countries and through its banks. Sharon also voiced her frustration at the pace of the decisions being made by EU Finance Ministers, and their apparent lack of respect for the markets.
After the KPMG event, Sharon travelled back to Westminster for meetings in the Treasury regarding CRD4 and the upcoming trialogue on Deposit Guarantee Schemes.