Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-25-Speech-4-384-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20121025.28.4-384-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
". − Mr President, I will come straight back to the comment just made by Ms Zuber.
That is precisely what, together, we are going to propose. I will be looking very closely, for instance, at what happened in May 2010, at the time of the US crash. Indeed, what took place is still not very well understood, even two years later. Therefore, this principle of responsibility was needed and we will see, with the review clause, whether that is enough.
In any case, echoing the remarks made by Ms Bowles, your Chair, I want to point out that the proposals you are preparing to approve in order to place very strict constraint on position limits – and I would very much welcome it if all other G20 partners, especially the United States, could confirm their determination to do the same – are backed – honourable Members, I am giving you this information – by IOSCO, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, which just stated in a report that this is the direction to take.
I would like to respond, Mr President, if I may, to several of your colleagues – Mr Schmidt, Mr Balz, Mr Sosa Wagner, Mr Giegold, Ms Swinburne and Ms Berès – on the issue of commissions. We sought the right balance. Retrocession must be regulated and prohibited where necessary.
In fact, we provided for such a ban in two very specific instances: independent advice and portfolio management. In both cases, being remunerated by the provider of the products sold is, I think, wholly irreconcilable with an ability to provide the independent service the investor expects. I am conscious, honourable Members, of the changes that such a ban may entail in certain markets. That is why the Commission’s proposal retains the option for investors to take non-independent advice if they so wish.
Lastly, I would point out that in another text, Packaged Retail Investment Products, PRIPs, we have also, and in parallel, strengthened and simplified the information available to all individual investors, in particular, and to which they are entitled.
Mr Helmer pointed out the importance of the City of London. I think that the fact we have, in the City, such an important location for the financial markets is an opportunity, not just for the United Kingdom but for all of Europe, and I do not see, Mr Helmer, how the fact of strengthening transparency and promoting healthy markets, as MiFID seeks to do, could be seen as an attack on London. Or I have lost the plot!
I have always thought and observed that those managing the City and the UK Exchequer supported the effort we are making together in favour of the single market in financial services, transparency and promotion of healthy markets. Please tell me if I am wrong, Mr Helmer.
Moreover, Mr Helmer, an advocate of liberalism, will allow me to remind him
I am speaking from memory
of what was said by Adam Smith, the person who inspired great liberal thinking: ‘There is no market in the absence of rules and in the absence of moral conduct on the part of its own actors’. There is no market in the absence of rules, or in the absence of moral conduct, Mr Helmer, for actors in these financial markets. That is what we are in the process of restoring by learning the lessons from the crisis.
Mr Martin, we are indeed in the process of learning the lessons from the crisis and also acting to ensure that account is taken of the will of the people, who no longer want to pay the costs of regulatory arbitrage and a certain irresponsibility.
All in all, honourable Members, we need financial markets
I reiterate what Ms Goulard said, we need markets which are secure, transparent and perhaps, in the home stretch, Mr Ferber, we will be able to look at whether, in the detail, we have indeed closed all the loopholes to leave the least possible opportunity for regulatory arbitrage and be certain, in terms of all the details, that this requirement for transparency, but also traceability, is indeed present.
Ms Zuber, it is necessary to be objective; these are not partial responses made by the Commission, Parliament or the Council. We are dealing with every product, every sector, every financial player. For the more than two-and-a-half years during which I have had the honour to be Commissioner and to work with many of you, we have constructed – Ms Zuber, you have to look at things objectively – 28 texts under the heading of regulation.
That has been our goal with Mr Langen for the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) text and, lastly, I would like to say a word of thanks to Ms McCarthy for the work she did on the report just adopted on another directive forming part of this set on sanctions, including criminal and administrative sanctions for market abuse.
In conclusion, we are working for the real economy. We want to make financial markets serve the real economy once more and, in all the texts we are working on together – MiFID today – capital requirements for solvency, pension funds, we must have this concern for the real economy and long-term investment. That is also why I am going to start a debate by means of a green paper not only on how to avoid penalising long-term investment and the real economy but also to on how to encourage them. I would, moreover, from that angle, support Mr Balz’s proposal on financial education, which is a very important point and one we should develop in various ways.
Lastly, I would like to say that your unanimous expression of thanks to Mr Ferber, your rapporteur, is well deserved, given the complexity of this text, which is a cornerstone of this regulatory agenda. To your thanks, I would like to add my own, and add that we are ready to complete the home stretch in the coming weeks.
If you put them together, as they are in this table, and explain matters to your constituents, it must give you the proof that we are dealing with the effects of, and learning the lessons from, the financial crisis, that we are doing the job. It is not just the Commission that is doing the job, but you, also, are doing the work as an MEP. Say it! You have reasons to be proud of the work done by all honourable Members on our proposals for learning from the crisis and, ultimately, doing what people expect, that is to say, making the financial markets, which we need – Ms Goulard was right to say so – serve the real economy once more, rather than themselves, as they have been allowed to do for 15 or 20 years.
I say that because it is not something small, no tiny grain of sand, that Mr Ferber’s report offers you based on our proposal. Mr Krahmer, Ms Gáll-Pelcz and Ms Goulard indeed talked about the real economy. Your proposal, like the one I am presenting, pays great attention to the needs of the real economy and to small and medium-sized enterprises. Firstly, by putting in place financial markets which are healthy, transparent, efficient and useful in financing the real economy, to avoid what Mr Stolojan referred to as a problem in his own country, for instance, and to respond to the need for credibility, transparency and consumer and investor protection. At the same time, we are also taking specific measures on SME access to financial markets.
Honourable Members, I would point out that, here in Europe, the economy is financed 75 % by the banks and 25 % by the financial markets. That is in inverse proportion to the United States, where it is the financial markets that finance 75 % of the economy. In Europe the figure is 25 %, and even less for small and medium-sized enterprises. I wish to state my intention to continue working on specific measures on financial market access for small and medium-sized enterprises, with carefully calibrated exemptions, in particular for industrial investment. I think of what we have done, for example, with Mr Langen for the European Market Infrastructure (EMIR) and what we are doing for SMEs with Mr Karas on banking regulation.
Mr Goebbels pointed out that this text has a review clause. It is also extremely important to remember that, for most of the texts I present to you, I support this idea of a review clause. In fact, as you said, Mr Goebbels, but also as pointed out by Mr Winkler, Ms Gáll-Pelcz and Ms Băsescu, we have to contend with highly effective and imaginative financial markets, which exploit not just technology but sometimes also loopholes in global regulation (and there are some) and which move very fast, much faster than us and much faster than democracy. That is why, as pointed out by Mr Goebbels, rendezvous clauses are needed to check, adapt and improve our texts.
I would now like to say a word on a subject that is very important to me. You know that I was Minister for Agriculture in my country. I had the opportunity to give my opinion on what Ms Swinburne referred to, namely the growing financialisation of transactions on agricultural markets compared with physical markets. Such financialisation has increased exponentially over the last few years, with greater volatility in that area which naturally brings with it numerous additional speculation risks.
That is why, like Ms McCarthy, Mr Schmidt, Mr Klute, Mr Goebbels, Mr Langen, Ms Berès, Mr Mann and Mr Cutaş, I want to state my support for your rapporteur’s proposals, which you have supported unanimously, to further demonstrate – I am speaking now to Mr Giegold – that Commission proposals can always be, and often are, improved or strengthened.
I do not know everything; I do an honest, pro-active and generally ambitious job. Sometimes too much so, I am told, if I listen to certain lobbyists
but that is as much as I listen to them. I want to say that, happily, Parliament improves many texts. That is particularly true for this issue of position limits, where we see clearly that high-frequency trading must be constrained. I have not heard any proposals to prohibit high-frequency trading. I maintain, Mr Goebbels, that it has some benefit in terms of price formation but must be constrained and regulated. Certain abuses must be prevented."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples