Brussels, 14/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - New impetus to boost the internal market, consumers and small and medium-sized businesses taking ownership of the acquis communautaire, appropriate regulation of the financial industry: “It is a new era that is beginning” for the internal market, stated Commissioner-designate Michel Barnier on Wednesday 13 January in a chamber too small to accommodate the MEPs, media and lobby group personnel who wanted to attend his hearing. Referring to the legacy of the founding fathers of the EU, speaking of how he was scarred by the French “No” vote in the 2005 referendum on the constitutional treaty, Barnier, who is currently an MEP, said he would like to make his term of office resolutely political. “The European project, that of the founding fathers, aimed precisely to build a Common Market and make it the heart of our shared economic and social model. Because wanting to be together can also come from an interest in being together”. Applauded several times during his interview, Barnier showed his knowledge of European minutiae and issues, without adventuring into certain technical details, for which he asked for time. To Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany) and Sylvie Goulard (ALDE, France) who asked him about his impartiality, he said there should be no doubt over his desire to “serve the general European interest” and he said he would “take no orders from Paris, London or anywhere else”. In the face of attacks and pressure, he promised to be the calm man from the mountains, similar to the legendary “phlegmatic Englishman”. There was still one unknown, his ability in English, the language of financial matters.
He said he wanted to counter the internal market “fatigue” that Mario Monti spoke of and the temptation to turn inward stoked by the economic and financial crisis. For this, he pledged to work to put the internal market at the service of human progress through a number of initiatives: - boosting e-trade by putting in place a framework that consumers could trust; - implementing the services directive; - guaranteeing access to quality public services; - launching a “Social Business Act” for profit-making companies working to overcome exclusion; - and giving consideration to a European status for “philanthropic foundations and activities”. Asked by Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D, Germany) whether he would carry out social impact studies before launching initiatives, he replied, “Yes”, and said he would even add environmental impact studies. Kyriakios Triantophyllides (GUE/NGL, Greece) asked him about the Laval and Viking cases which infringed collective agreement on posted workers, and Pascal Canfin (Greens/EFA, France) asked him if he would concede on the country of origin principle if it meant that employees would be paid less. Barnier said he had no intention of putting his name to what would be socially regressive, recommending assessment of European case law.
Bernadette Vergnaud (S&D, France) asked if he would bring forward a proposal for a framework directive on services of general economic interest (SGEI). Subscribing to the wishes of the Commission President for quality public services, Barnier remained “open minded” on this idea, but he recalled that the debate under the Prodi Commission did not clearly demonstrate the need for a general directive. His tone was different on social services. “It is not the Commission's role to prevent, under the terms of competition policy, services from operating if they are not in a position of competition. Should there be a framework for each service or a general framework? I will work on this.” Would, asked Heide Rühle (Greens/EFA, Germany) launch an initiative on service concessions, particularly in water supply? Referring to the legal uncertainty of the situation with this kind of public contract, Barnier, a former leader of the Savoie region, said he did not want to leave local authorities in that situation. Nothing had yet been decided and care had to be taken with national and regional differences, he warned. In response to the question from Philippe Juvin (EPP, France) on defence markets, he backed “mutualisation” of national efforts and a strong European industry, but was against off-sets.
Several matters related to intellectual property were raised. Asked by Robert Rochefort (ALDE, France) on what he intended to do about an EU patent and a legal system on the settlement of patent disputes, Barnier said that, in line with the wishes of the Competitiveness Council, he would “shortly” bring forward a proposal for a regulation governing the languages of the EU patent in order to end an issue that had become unbearably slow. He also backed EU accession to the European Patents Office if that brought any real added value. To Matteo Salvini (ELD, Italy), who wanted to hear more about the European counterfeiting monitoring unit, Barnier stated his belief in the traceability of goods. Taking measures to combat counterfeiting was not protectionist, but was seeking to protect consumers and endure fair trading, he stressed. “Should there not be a European framework to protect creative content?” asked Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvia). Barnier felt it would be better first to check the effectiveness of existing texts. He said that there had to be a balance sought between freedom of information and artists' creation rights.
In an effort to get to obtain greater respect for Community law, the former Commissioner for regional policy intends to go “once a week” on the ground to meet the players involved in implementing European legislation. This is a way in which he will be able to better anticipate possible problems, as in the case of the services directive and recognition of qualifications. Another exercise would involve examining the exemptions in legislation on the internal market in an effort to reduce them. The Commissioner-designate set out an objective of reducing the costs inherent in administrative charges by €7 million as better of the “better regulation” initiative.
Financial services. The outgoing Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy began his mandate by calling for less legislation in the financial sector and Mr Barnier will begin his calling for deep-seated reform of EU financial legislation. The crisis has changed political priorities. Taking up the G20 road map, he underlined the fact that, “no market, no actor, no product, no territory can now escape from appropriate legislation and efficient monitoring”. He also appealed for them to turn the page of an irresponsible era and for transparency, responsibility and morals to be put back at the heart of the financial system. According to him, this approach will serve the interests of the City of London, “it is not in the interest of the British financial industry, which we need, to continue to suffer from appeals for public funding and tax payers repairing the damage of a crisis that governments had not seen coming due to the lack of transparency and supervision”. In an attempt to reassure Vicky Ford (ECR, UK) and Astrid Lulling (EPP, Luxembourg) who were concerned at the repercussions of a regulatory screwdriver on the relocation of investment companies, he explained, “the interest of European and British industry is to be efficiently regulated and benefit from a sustainable competitive edge”.
Financial supervision. The former French minister of agriculture and foreign affairs described the agreement at the Ecofin Council in December as a positive step. He intends to defend the Commission's initial position, which was weakened by the Council over binding powers given to the three future European supervisory authorities (ESA). In this connection, “added value” from the EP on this dossier would be a great help. In reply to Kay Swinburne (ECR, UK), who questioned the appropriateness of a single supervisory authority at a European level, Barnier explained that that quality of the supervision was not a priori determined by institutional choices. He said that what counted was the vigilance of the national and European authorities, global coherency of legislation and information provided to these bodies.
The list of areas in which Mr Barnier seeks to work is long. Initiatives have already been launched, such as the proposal to frame hedge funds. Others have been announced: structures for derivatives in an effort to enhance transparency in a market worth €600 000; crisis management and prevention; reinforcing deposit guarantees; review on capital requirement for banks aiming for leverage ratio, liquidity risk management and dynamic provision; revision of rules on market abuses, toughening up sanctions and tackling the question of short selling; assessment of the “MiFID” directive, which tackles problems linked to dark pools.
Bonuses. In a reply on this question from Said El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium), he said that he hoped for adoption in a first reading on the proposal authorising member states to impose increased capital requirements on banks whose remuneration policies encouraged excessive risk. According to Barnier, it is possible to go further in this area by making share holders more responsible and by applying the same standards on insurance companies, investment funds and hedge funds. In a response to Sharon Bowles (ALDE, UK), he provided assurances that any European legislation adopted in response to the financial crisis would be assessed. Mr Canfin regretted, however, that he had not mentioned taxing financial transactions, the creation of a European consumer protection agency or the fight against tax havens.
Aware of the international magnitude of his role, Michel Barnier promised that he would go to the US and China to build relations and check that the EU's partners were carrying out their G20 obligations. The US is ahead on short sells, he noted, and hoped that Europe would be so in financial supervision. (M.B.)