Phil Prendergast (S&D). - Mr President, as Commissioner Barnier, the Commissioner responsible for the internal market, has said, over the past four years we have had to re-engage in the process of reconstructing our financial market regulations after the near collapse of the global financial sector, with consequences that are still painfully felt by our citizens.

That regulatory vacuum was very much a source of pride to his predecessor, Charlie McCreevy, who continued to defend it in front of this Chamber as financial institutions floundered in late 2008. While many of the compromises we had to reach within Parliament and with the EU Council of Ministers to rebuild our financial regulation regimes did not go as far as I, and many colleagues, wished, this piece of legislation is one that I fully endorse.

Insider dealing and market abuse will now be a criminal offence in all Member States. We need the full force of criminal law to deter grievous abuses by players in a sector where a sense of ethics is fundamentally lacking and recklessness has been glorified. The Libor scandal is a recent case ...

(The President cut off the speaker.)