Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-10-23-Speech-1-149"
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"en.20061023.19.1-149"2
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".
Mr President, I welcome the Commissioner and thank him for his words about the report. I believe it is the close working relationship that has developed between Parliament, its various groups and the Commission that has helped to steady the rudder on this one. Quite clearly we are entering a very dangerous time: we have two years in which to get this right, to measure the value of equivalence and reach convergence with countries around the world. So the Commissioner is absolutely right to point this out not only to the USA but also to other third countries. However, the USA is certainly the big project that we all know about. That is going to be the tough one, and we are quite clearly afraid that the billions of dollars and euros between our two capital markets at the transatlantic level will be put in jeopardy if we do not get this right.
I am very positive that we are on the right route and I believe that what Parliament has put forward has helped to strengthen the methodology, also scrutinising the approach which will be involved in this particular battle.
Looking at the bulk of this directive and the amendments from the supervisors and others in this House – and I am very grateful to colleagues who have assisted on this issue – I believe that we have not overburdened the business community. That is and has always been vital. You cannot use the term ‘light touch’ all the time and then overburden business. This is an important cross-border capital market issue and we need greater coherence and communication between the various operators within that market.
We also need to ensure that investors are protected and that the right information is communicated to them in a relevant and timely manner. These are issues which, of course, are now left to the Member State. I think the Commissioner might agree with me that we should be using the most modern methods to communicate to investors.
I do not have much time, so I shall not pursue all the issues of this particular directive. However, I should like to turn to one recital in the original directive and bend the Commissioner’s ear. That recital concerns the voluntary initiatives to help companies report what they pay governments around the world in the extractive industries. As the Commissioner might remember – and I am sure his departments will – this was an initiative which was to help end corrupt practices. It was aimed not only at places as far-flung as Africa, but also within our own borders. Companies were meant to volunteer information about what they pay governments so that we in turn would know, and investors would know, just what money changed hands between governments and companies. It was aimed at the extractive industries because it was clear that this was an area in which an awful lot of money was going abroad, away from the countries where it should have been used.
My final question to the Commissioner is to ask what he and his services might do to support that initiative. I think this House would enjoy hearing again what your predecessor gave as a promise some years ago."@en1
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