Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-06-15-Speech-2-445"
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"en.20100615.28.2-445"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament is seeking to draw attention with this oral question to the problems concerning credit rating agencies. Our aim is to find out from the European Commission what the next steps will be, starting with the possibility of creating a European credit rating agency which we support and feel is taking shape, partly in the light of what President Barroso himself has said on this issue.
We must give praise where praise is due and acknowledge that credit rating agencies have achieved virtually the impossible: they have managed to play a decisive role both in the very early stages of the 2008 financial crisis, during the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and now at this second stage, which began with the debt crisis in Greece.
In 2008, they disregarded – and, in some cases, even promoted – the risks of toxic products, and now they have decided to do their bit for the stability of the markets by slashing the ratings of Greece, Portugal and Spain, just when the negotiations between the European Union, the IMF and the Greek Government were under way. President Buzek, there are no two ways about it: these people are evil!
Now, it is not that I want to put all the blame for what has happened in the world and in Europe on credit rating agencies. However, the fact that they are always present at the scene of the crime – and I am referring to the Parmalat case, the Enron case, the Lehman Brothers case – ought to make us react in a more appropriate and practical manner than we are at present, since we are doing nothing.
Commissioner, when will an inquiry be carried out into this affair and into this sector? We worked on this with Mr Gauzès a while ago, when we drafted the regulation on credit rating agencies. A sectoral inquiry is now required in order to shed some light on the scandalous, unacceptable situation in which a concentration and oligopoly are being created in this sector.
Let us get a grip on the situation before things get even worse and let us turn our words into deeds. As well as the need to create a European public agency, we should also reflect on the role that independent courts of auditors can play in providing an assessment of sovereign debts, thus absolving private agencies of the responsibility for them.
President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel – and I shall conclude here – have officially asked the European Commission to draft some proposals to strengthen competition in the credit rating market. It is a pity that in the European Council, in which President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel sit, it is, in fact, the governments that are delaying the approval of the financial supervision package and thus preventing ESMA, the European authority that will be responsible for monitoring, from being set up.
Therefore, President Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel, you should put your own house in order before telling President Barroso what to do."@en1
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