What Sharon Did Last Week (3rd - 7th October)
Monday
Sharon arrived in Brussels on the Eurostar at 10.30 am and came straight into the office to catch up on some paperwork until 2.00pm. At 2.00pm, Sharon met with the Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, for a pre-committee meeting chat. She then Chaired the ECON committee meeting alongside the Chairman of the IASB, who took part in an exchange of views with the committee from 3.00pm until 6.30pm.
Tuesday
Sharon started the day bright and early with an early morning radio interview on the Today programme, which was aired at 7.00am. Sharon discussed the finer points of EMIR, the perfect pick-me up discussion at that time of the morning! Sharon then chaired the ECON committee, which discussed CRD4 until 11.00am. After a de-brief with the ECON secretariat, Sharon met Nadia Calvino from the European Commission and the main topic of discussion was CRD4 and Crisis Management.
At 3.00pm, Sharon chaired ECON until 6.30pm, this particular Committee meeting consisted of Jean-Claude Trichet's (Head of the European Central Bank) last appearance before the European Parliament in this capacity as well as a visit from the three Chairs of the European Supervisory Authorities. The meeting saw a huge press scrum to witness Jean-Claude Trichet's taking part in his final monetary dialogue. Indeed the press were wowed even further when Sharon presented Mr Trichet with a specially made gavel on behalf of the European Parliament.
Wednesday
Sharon spent the morning giving telephone interviews to journalists, discussing the upcoming Short Selling trialogue with the ECON secretariat, and formulating ideas for amendments in the upcoming ECON dossiers. At 1.30pm, Sharon had a telephone conversation with Sony Kapoor, who is managing director of a financial think-tank, which lasted until 2.00pm. The Association of Financial Markets in Europe came in to Sharon's office to discuss how CRD4 is progressing. From 2.45 until 3.30, Sharon met with a representative from Standard Chartered and then at 3.30, she had a telephone interview with The Guardian about the Eurozone crisis.
At 4.15, Sharon chaired a trialogue in ECON about short-selling. Straight after, Sharon found time to meet briefly with Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to discuss audit policy before following him downstairs in the parliament for a meeting with Lib Dem MEPs until 7pm.
Thursday
At 9.30, Sharon chaired an ECON meeting with Commissioner Semeta on the Financial Transaction Tax; a controversial measure, which aims to tax all financial transactions in the EU.
At 11.00am, Sharon met with Steve Williams, the head of the newly formed Channel Islands office in Brussels. At 12.00, Sharon was again in a meeting, this time with Euroinvestors, a trade body which represents all financial investors in the EU. They wanted to talk to Sharon about extra funding streams through the EU. At 1.30, Sharon left the European Parliament and headed for the constituency, catching the Eurostar at 2.30.
Friday
Sharon spent Friday working from her constituency office on upcoming speeches and her MEP quarterly newsletter to Lib Dem members.