What Sharon Did Last Week (14th - 18th November)
Monday
Sharon arrived in Strasbourg at 13.00 having begun travelling at 06.00.
At 14:30, Sharon met with the ECON Secretariat for a briefing on several dossiers currently being divided between the Internal Market and Consumer Affairs Committee (IMCO) and ECON. After, at 15:00, Sharon met with Malcolm Harbour MEP, Chair of the Internal Market Committee, to discuss the same.
At 15:30, Sharon attended an ALDE Group meeting to talk over short selling and the community act for economic and fiscal union. This meeting was immediately followed by an ALDE ECON prep meeting to discuss voting lines on key votes coming up in the week.
At 17:00, Sharon attended an ALDE ECON prep meeting to discuss how to vote on certain dossiers, and at 17:45, she went to the UK Lib Dem delegation meeting.
At 19:00, Sharon chaired a session of ECON during which votes took place on nominations to the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB), as well as on the European Semester for economic policy coordination. After, at 20:30, Sharon attended an ECON Coordinators meeting which went on long into the night.
Tuesday
At 09:00, Sharon had a meeting with Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services to go over current financial legislation.
After this, she tabled some amendments to the corporate governance to the JURI to have more stringent oversight on systemic, non-financial firms.
At 11:00, Sharon met with Margrethe Vestager, the Danish Minister for Economic Affairs, to discuss policy ahead of the Danish Presidency of Council of the European Union which begins in January 2012.
At 12:00, Sharon went to the hemicycle to vote on a number of matters, including ECON's proposals on short selling. Immediately after the vote, Sharon took part in a press conference on the short selling vote, which was passed by a large majority.
After, at 14:30, Sharon returned to her office for a Transatlantic Dialogue Working Group meeting on Financial Markets and Stability ahead of her trip to the US in a couple of weeks. Shortly after this meeting took place, Sharon had an arranged telephone conversation with Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament on a procedural point for the next day´s Plenary.
At 16:30, Sharon attended the third trialogue on Deposit Guarantee Schemes. After, at 18:00, Sharon went to an ALDE group meeting to discuss Wednesday's votes. Following this meeting, Sharon had dinner with Peter Skinner MEP to discuss Solvency II.
Wednesday
From 09:00 until 11:00, Sharon took part in a key debate on Economic Governance and the December European Council preparations in Plenary.
At 12:00, Sharon again headed to the hemicycle for a voting session of the European Parliament.
Directly after the votes, Sharon attended an ALDE Coordinators lunch with President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. On the agenda were Economic Governance and Greece's recovery.
After the lunch, Sharon went to the formal signing of the Economic Governance Package in the European Parliament. President Buzek expressed his wish to have Sharon, as Chair of ECON, in attendance for this occasion.
At 14:30, Sharon attended a Shadows meeting on SEPA, the Single Euro Payments Area ahead of the SEPA trialogue scheduled for 15:30.
At 18:35, Sharon caught a flight back to Brussels. Soon after arriving, Sharon received a telephone call from Danny Alexander to discuss SMEs and what can be done to help them during this economic crisis.
Thursday
At 10:00, Sharon attended the Berlaymont Roundtable with Commission President Barroso and Secretary General Catherine Day, as well as Ministers and MEPs from the UK. On the agenda for the roundtable was discussion on European economic regulation to aid growth.
After, at 16:00, Sharon caught a Eurostar back to the UK.
Friday
Sharon spent Friday working from her constituency office. In the evening she travelled to Chandler's Ford to speak as Guest of Honour at the Chandler's Ford Liberal Democrats Annual Dinner.