What Sharon Did Last Week (17th - 21st October)
Monday
Sharon got in to Brussels on the Eurostar at 11.30am and proceeded straight to the European Parliament for a meeting with her assistants at 12.30pm to discuss the busy week ahead. At 2.30pm, Sharon attended an ALDE ECON preparatory meeting, where Sharon gave an update to her colleagues on the European market infrastructure regulation (EMIR). Sharon then chaired an ECON committee meeting from 3pm until 6.30pm which included votes on EU State Aid and Collective Redress for EU citizens. Sharon finally chaired an extraordinary coordinators meeting for an hour after the committee finished discussing pressing issues which have arisen in the European Parliament.
Tuesday
Sharon got into the office early to prepare for the final Short Selling trilogue which was to take place later in the day. At 10.30am, Sharon and her ECON secretariat colleagues had a brainstorming session about the European System of National and Regional Accounts, the report on which Sharon is rapporteur. Sharon then rushed off to the HQ of the United Kingdom Permanent Representation to the European Union (UKREP), where she updated Lib Dem cabinet colleagues, via a video link, about the Eurozone and sovereign debt crisis. Sharon then had a couple of meetings, one with representatives from the FairPensions organisation and the other with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Chair Stephen Maijoor. Sharon then had a quick update with the ECON secretariat and her assistant Siobhan before Short Selling trilogue from 5.30pm until 8pm. After the trilogue ended, the press were allowed into the committee room to report on the final decision, which included the virtual ban in the trading of naked credit default swaps in the EU.*
After a very hectic day, Sharon managed to meet with colleagues for a late dinner!
Wednesday
Sharon flew to Frankfurt, arriving at 10.20am to attend the leaving events of Jean Claude-Trichet (President of the European Central Bank). The event started at 1pm and finished at 7.30pm and included lunch, at which Sharon was on the table of honour alongside President Trichet, Mario Draghi (New President of the ECB), Helmut Schmidt, Elena Salgado and others. Sharon was particularly honoured by a special mention in Mr Trichet´s speech.
Sharon arrived back in Brussels at 10.20pm.
Thursday
Sharon met with the newly appointed New Zealand ambassador to the EU at 10am until 10.45am whereby she then rushed to the BBC studios in Brussels for an interview on the Eurozone crisis for a documentary to be aired on Radio 4 on the "pick of the week". Afterwards, Sharon came straight back to her office where she met with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association between 12.30pm and 1pm to talk about the fourth instalment of the Capital Requirements Directive.
Sharon's meetings didn't end there as Sharon then met with the UK's Minister for Europe, David Lidington, to update him on what Sharon has been doing in the ECON committee as well giving the Minister of State a chance to pick Sharon's brains about the Eurozone crisis.
Sharon then spent the rest of the afternoon (and early evening!) writing a speech on Sovereign Bonds, which she went on to give on Friday morning.
Friday
Sharon attended an Association of Financial Markets in Europe conference in the morning at 08.30am to give the aforementioned speech on sovereign bonds. It went down a storm! Unfortunately, Sharon could not appreciate the applause she was receiving for too long because she had to rush to the Brussels Eurostar terminal to give an interview for BBC 10 O Clock News at 11am. With military precision, Sharon then got on the train back to the UK to attend to constituency matters.
* A credit default swap is an "insurance" on a bond. You can buy them even if you do not own the bond - then it is called a naked credit default swap. Many do not like this as they consider it to be insuring something which you do not own, and that it can be abused. However, if you have interests in a country, you may need the insurance even if you do not own a sovereign bond. This "proxy hedging" is not banned. Also, if the ban leads to harmful effect on the market, the ban can be suspended, allowing naked CDS to take place.