What Sharon Did Last Week (7th - 12th November)
Monday
Sharon spent Monday morning catching up with her team; talking over the work for the week ahead and discussing her diary plans. At 13:30, Sharon met with Marjory van den Broeke, Head of Press at the European Parliament to discuss press strategy and innovation.
At 14:00 Sharon attended an ALDE ECON prep meeting, ahead of the Committee session she chaired between 15:00 and 18:00 where the European Semester for economic policy coordination was discussed and there was a public hearing on the European Semester.
Tuesday
At 8:50 Sharon chaired a high level open coordinators meeting with the French and German finance ministers. After this, at 10:00, Sharon met with Richard Raeburn, Chairman of TradeRisks, to discuss the latest developments of the Capital Requirements Directive and a Financial Transaction Tax.
At 11:15 Sharon met with a journalist group from Finland to talk about the Economic Governance Package, and Basel III.
From 12:30 until 14:30, Sharon attended a meeting of the Liberal Democrat European Parliamentary Party (LDEPP) to discuss campaign strategy with members from the Liberal Democrat Headquarters.
At 15:30, Sharon then met with Ed Webber, the MEPs' liaison officer with Westminster, and then after, at 16:00, met with the Federation of European Securities Exchanges to discuss the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
From 17:00 to 18:30 Sharon attended ALDE Group meetings to discuss the November plenary agenda as well as commenting on the European Semester for economic policy coordination report.
Wednesday
Sharon arrived at 09:00 to prepare for a meeting with the Conciliation and Co-decision Secretariat at 09:30 for the formal tabling of the Short Selling Regulation. After this, Sharon had a meeting with Adolfo Barberá del Rosal, head of the ECON Secretariat.
At 11:00, Sharon attended a briefing by the European Commission on the draft implementing measures of Solvency II. After this, at 12:30, Sharon chaired a lunch hosted by the European Parliamentary Financial Services Forum on CRD IV.
After the lunch, Sharon returned to her office to meet with Margaret Ewing, Vice-Chairman of Deloitte UK, and Kari Hale, a senior partner in Deloitte UK's London Banking and Capital Markets division, to discuss the forthcoming proposals to existing audit regulations.
After a brief meeting with visiting journalists from non-Eurozone countries to discuss how the Eurozone crisis will impact all countries in the EU. Sharon then dashed back to her office, where she welcomed the US Ambassador to the EU, William Kennard, to follow up on ECON's recent visit to the US, and also for a discussion on the eurozone crisis.
Sharon spent the rest of the afternoon working in her office, taking a telephone call from Pam Walkden, Group Treasurer at Standard Chartered, and talking to her staff members about next year's budgets.
Thursday
Sharon caught the 10:00 Eurostar to arrive in London just after 11, and went to Millbank studios to appear on the Daily Politics show with Andrew Neil. Sharon then walked across Millbank for a tripartite meeting (between MPs, MEPs and Lords) at the House of Lords. The topics discussed were the response to the Eurozone crisis, the next multi-annual financial framework, and the future of inter-parliamentary Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy.
Friday
Sharon spent the day working from her constituency office on an opinion piece for the Financial Times as well as several articles for industry publications, before heading to Oxford to speak at the Oxford East Liberal Democrats Annual General Meeting.
Saturday
Sharon travelled to Luton for 15:00 to do an interview for Radio 4's PM programme. After this, Sharon made her way into London for a live interview for Sky News. In both interviews, Sharon discussed Italy's current economic situation and the wider Eurozone crisis.