Brussels, 18/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 18 December, MEPs on the European Parliament economic and monetary affairs committee questioned European Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy on the White Paper on the integration of EU mortgage credit markets, presented on the same day by the Commission. Was it a “minimalist proposal”, given the crisis in the financial markets, asked John Purvis (EPP-ED, UK)? Committee chairwoman Pervenche Berès (PES, France) asked what the analysis had been based on: “your preferred option”, which consists of legislating as little as possible, or the conclusions drawn from the financial turbulence resulting from the American subprime crisis.
“It has never been my intention to bring forward a directive” on mortgage credit, McCreevy answered. The Commission, in its White Paper on mortgage credit, feels it needs more time to assess the advantages and disadvantages of legislation. In 2008, it will concentrate its assessment on four areas: pre-contract information, the annual percentage rate of change (APR), the responsibility of the lender and expected reimbursement. The Commissioner acknowledged that his opinion could annoy some, but that was the way it was. Giving assurances that he was not, as a matter of principle, “for or against legislation”, he said he thought one should not go down the road of legislation “when it has not been proved that it is necessary”. “We'll see in a few years,” he added. With regard to the financing of mortgage credit, one of the things that spread the housing crisis to all financial markets, he simply highlighted the need “to analyse the problems” and “see where they come from”.
“The real economy has been more greatly affected” by the financial turbulence “than we thought,” said Elisa Ferreira (PES, Portugal). How could “the lack of transparency” on financial markets be overcome, she wondered? Alexander Radwan (EPP-ED, Germany) urged the Commissioner “not always to concentrate on what is happening in the United States,” because, what comes from there are crises. Would it not be possible to develop our own European models to try to prevent crises, he asked. “We have detected weaknesses on the markets,” McCreevy said. He spoke of the Ecofin Council conclusions on stability and the imminent implementation of the directive on requirements in terms of own funds as the first part of the response to the financial crisis. Questioned by EUROPE on the initiative from UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to invite German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to a tripartite summit on how to increase financial stability (see related article), McCreevy said he thought that “all contributions” to help find a response to the financial turbulence “are welcome”. He said that the member states which do not take part in this summit will be able to make their opinions known at the European Council in March. (M.B.)