Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 15 February 2017 - Strasbourg

Objection pursuant to rule 105(3): Regulatory technical standards for the application of position limits to commodity derivatives (B8-0139/2017, B8-0147/2017, B8-0148/2017) (vote)

  Anneliese Dodds (S&D). – Mr President, I am very sorry to take up 60 seconds of your time, but I think it is essential people in this Chamber know what they are about to vote on. Charities, religious groups and many businesses support rejection of this technical standard because they are concerned about the impact of speculation on food commodity prices. Many of you will know that those spikes in food commodity prices have been linked to famine in some countries, pushing millions of people into poverty. We are asking for a very small change to tighten up rules. National regulators will still have the power to loosen those rules if they have to, and farmers who use derivative markets to hedge their bets are accepted. Please, whatever group you are in, reject these technical standards.