Brussels, 11/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - In a combined letter, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Luxembourg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and Greek prime minister Georges Papandreou ask the European Commission to investigate the role and impact of speculation in credit default swaps on EU Member States' sovereign debt. They say that if the investigation were to reveal abuse of the markets or demonstrate that speculation has had a 'considerable' impact on interest rates, then rapid legislation would be needed to put an end to this. They adds that the investigation should consider suitable measures like a minimum holding period for credit default swaps (CDS), banning speculation in CDS and banning the purchase of CDS which are not used to actually cover credit default risks. They call for a beefing up of EU initiatives to boost transparency on the derivatives markets with the compulsory logging of all derivatives sold over the counter in central databases located in Europe. They 'strongly' back the idea of CCP moving to the eurozone to increase the stability of the European financial system. (M.B. trans fl) Nicky - CCP covers a multitude of sins - don't know what he means so I've left it in French.