Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-22-Speech-1-070"
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"en.20080922.19.1-070"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the debate is indeed taking place, if somewhat by chance, at exactly the right time. My report to all intents and purposes addresses the other side of the coin.
It also entails reasonable checks being made on certain risks when credit is granted to ensure that sensible, necessary consequences can also be drawn in order that giant levers cannot be moved by relatively small means, which ultimately create an impact that gets completely out of control and brings adversity in its wake for the general public and for others.
Incidentally, one piece of advice: in the meantime numerous proposals have been developed in the industry for practical codes, for voluntary regulation on how one should behave. The mere fact that these regulations have been developed, even if they are still only voluntary at present, thus accounts for the fact that the industry itself evidently accepts the need for some regulation. Hence it is entirely reasonable to take a look at, and think about, whether we are able to take action here as well.
Asset flipping is another matter to which we must attend. Company law must tackle this issue because I am convinced that enterprises should not be able to be plundered. We are expecting a concrete proposal from the Commission. This is a report in accordance with Article 192, to which the Commission must respond. We hope it will do so soon.
Mr Rasmussen has had to deal in particular with the effects on the financial markets and the Committee on Legal Affairs with its expertise naturally concerned itself in particular with the aspects of company law and, where necessary, with the need to change European company law.
We are all shaken by the events of recent days. The public, politicians and – I say this very clearly – the honest economy as well. The problem we see in practice at the moment is that profits are being privatised, but losses are being nationalised. It has almost become a joke in this saga that Mr Paulson, the US Finance Minister, who was himself once head of Goldman Sachs, now finds himself in the situation of having to take USD 700 billion in taxpayers’ money in order to eliminate and smooth out the havoc his own sector of industry has wreaked. It is really sad.
There are more and more examples of the fact that in the public perception, the image of the conventional family enterprise taking care of its employees with its own liability, which it itself guarantees, is on the decline, while on the other hand, the impression continues to grow of us being partly governed at least in the economic sector by ineffectual top managers, by employees who are highly paid but who no longer bear any responsibility.
I think that the emerging impression of our system of market economy is appalling and that it is politically necessary for us to take the appropriate steps to restore order and thus actually remove this appalling impression.
The fact is that it affects not only the major investors, but now also small investors. It affects every taxpayer and all those who are dependent on government funds because more and more billions in public money have to be used to repair the damage.
I admit – and the debate has clearly shown this, and it is also indisputable – that one aspect we initially had to address in particular – namely the hedge funds and private equity sector – is not a cause of the problems we are currently having to tackle. Here too, however – and the debate in the House has clearly shown this, as have the hearings on both committees – there are obviously definite shortcomings in the areas of harmonisation and regulation.
It has rightly been stated that these sectors are also regulated by national regulations, some stronger, some weaker, according to the nations’ different traditions and according to which financial market regulations prevail there. At the same time, however, it has also become clear that we need further harmonisation and adjustment at European level in order to ensure that these sectors, which have now reached absolutely critical dimensions, also do not represent any risk for the financial markets.
I would like to respond to just a few key words, which have already been addressed in the draft report – which incidentally had already been resolved in the Committee on Legal Affairs in June when nobody was talking about this crisis in which we currently find ourselves. I am thinking of the terms ‘stock lending’ and ‘short selling’. We now hear that a range of important financial market regulators have banned this, and for good reason. We did ask at the time, and are asking now, as well, that this at least be examined. Consequences have to be drawn from this and legislative proposals must also be made if need be. One of these is the issue of better identification of shareholders, issues of transparency, of the tightening of the regulations on transparency in view of the fact that enterprises as well as the managers of these enterprises ought to know to whom they actually belong in order that they, too, are able to act responsibly towards those who own them."@en1
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