– Before the vote:

  Pascal Canfin, rapporteur. – (FR) Madam President, the report we are voting on today concludes a year’s work and is the first time that the European Union will ban a financial product used to speculate on the debt of states.

This report shows clearly that we have the political will to work together in this European Parliament and that we are capable of ensuring that our voices are heard, capable of negotiating, and capable of bringing the states round to our point of view. We in the European Parliament were the only ones to defend this idea of banning uncovered credit default swaps and types of speculation on sovereign debt – the Commission was against the idea – and, in the end, we have won the battle.

I therefore urge you to vote in favour of this text. I am very pleased with it and I would like to thank very sincerely the European Parliament negotiators, especially Markus Ferber and Robert Goebbels, who helped me in these negotiations.

(Applause)