Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-21-Speech-2-073"
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"en.20081021.7.2-073"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are living in the age of plumbers: there was the Polish plumber to influence the French ‘no’ to the Constitutional Treaty, and Joe the plumber to decide between Mr Obama and Mr McCain. Even our Heads of State or Government have had to turn their hand to plumbing, to plug the incessant burst pipes in an international financial system that is in a state of total collapse. Our governments have equipped themselves with an IKEA-style kit, a toolbox that should allow each State to cobble together a specific solution for each specific situation. As every DIY enthusiast knows, though, IKEA’s blueprints are hopelessly crude: the IKEA method, applied to international finance, runs the risk of being inadequate. The Presidency has done what it could, in other words crisis management, as President Sarkozy has stressed here. Our governments have managed to plug the series of leaks in an international financial system that is so interconnected that the malfunctions have gone global.
However, plumbing has its limits: we need to address the architecture of international finance. If we want to redesign the financial world to serve the real economy, there is no need to set up yet another high-level group; a low-level group responsible for recording the proposals of the Financial Stability Forum would be perfectly adequate. For example, the Forum recommended back in 2001 that better coverage should be provided for the risks taken by the banks. The European Parliament has, on several occasions, pointed the finger at the obvious idiocies of international finance, but its voice was not heard. The European summit claimed to be determined to learn lessons from the crisis and to make all those involved in the financial system act more responsibly, including with regard to pay and other inducements. There is going to be an international conference to discuss it all. So, are we going to end up with a new Bretton Woods? It seems doubtful. Voices are already being raised, including within the Presidency, warning against over-regulation. Commissioner McCreevy is being ever more provocative: he does not want to legislate for leverage ceilings on investment funds. While the European Council wants to regulate the fantastic bonuses of the golden boys, Mr McCreevy is putting his money on the self-regulation that we have seen at work over recent years. While even Mr Paulson is calling for better regulation of the markets, Commissioner McCreevy feels that, I quote, ‘there is a real risk that well-intentioned desires to address market failures translate into rushed, clumsy and counterproductive regulation’. The Charlie McCreevys of this world are already preparing us for the next speculative bubble, which I predict will form around the secondary market of the emissions quota trading system. In the meantime, Mr Sarkozy, the real economy is entering into recession. Now is not the time to scale back our ambitions regarding the environment, but neither is it the time to change, unilaterally, the only European industrial sector that is open to international competition."@en1
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