Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 18 November 2008 - Strasbourg

EU response to the world financial crisis: follow-up of the informal European Council from 7 November and of the G20 Summit from 15 November 2008 - Commission's legislative and work programme for 2009 (debate)

  Piia-Noora Kauppi (PPE-DE). - Madam President, I think lots of things have been said about the financial crisis but it is very important to have one viewpoint. We are too self-critical at the moment in this Parliament and also too self-critical vis-à-vis the EU institutions.

Let us not forget that we have had a very radical overhaul of our financial services legislation during the last eight years. We have proper laws. We have proper regulations and the supervisory system has also been improved. Of course we could not avoid the crisis, but we were not the birthplace of this crisis: it was born in America. It was born in the United States because of their lack of regulation, their lack of supervision and their lack of proper implementation.

We should avoid over-reacting in Europe. This is not the proper time to give in, having good impact assessments and a better regulation agenda, as Mr Bushill-Matthews just said. This is the perfect time to have well-targeted, well-prepared proposals and take them through. If we react incorrectly it might have serious consequences. It might even bring a more serious crisis upon us. For example, if we accept legislation which makes it more difficult for financial markets to recover, it is not to the benefit of European citizens.

We should now take it coolly and we should try to avoid improper, ill-targeted and ill-prepared legislation and not be too self-critical. The Commission should be thanked for bringing through this very important change in European legislation and supervisory regime.