Means to combat the economic crisis, particularly in the Eurozone

The Eurozone crisis is back on the front pages of our newspapers.

I have 3 points

Firstly public finances are still in a mess. We must stop wasting tax payers money so it can be spent where it is needed.

The EU should lead by example instead it is still throwing money at vanity projects.

Secondly we must stop just talking about growth and competitiveness and take actions. We must reduce bureaucracy for businesses small and large, but again and again the EU puts barriers on our businesses, costs on our consumers and impediments on our investors.

Thirdly the economic crisis started with a crisis in the financial sector. Four years on the share prices of some of Europes biggest banks are yet again tumbling.

The ECB's trillion Euro sticking plaster is not working.

Reforming financial services is not a political toy.  Our G20 and Basel commitments are vital for stability and confidence but
measures that force Europes biggest services industry to relocate overseas must be stopped.

European Investment Bank Annual Report 2010

Investing in infrastructure research and innovation is key to unlocking growth and increasing competitiveness, and the EIB has an important role to play. In my amendments to the Capital Requirements Directive, I have proposed that banks co-financing long-dated infrastructure with the EIB should be able to drop their risk rating by 50%. However, the EIB relies on its guarantee – implied guarantee – from our Member States for its triple-A rating, and we do need improved transparency.The Risk Sharing Finance Facility, loan guarantee facility and Eurostars programmes for SMEs appear to be under-utilised by certain Member States. These programmes can be overly bureaucratic when compared to national programmes, and we should look at this.

Last year, I led negotiations for this Parliament on budgetary frameworks. It obliges countries to disclose off-balance sheet debts and contingent liabilities, and the project bond initiative must not be an excuse to hide new debts in complex arrangements between our Member States, the EU and the EIB. So the pilot schemes should be carefully monitored and assessed before a larger roll-out. Funds should be open to all and pricing must be fair. As MEPs, we all know of the infrastructure needs in our own countries. In my region we need investment in broadband, electricity grids and key roads. If project bonds can unlock that investment without adding hidden leverage for our national taxpayers, then I will support them.

Corporate governance framework for European companies

In financial services, failures by directors to hold their employees to account and failures by shareholders to hold those directors to account compounded risk-taking, led to corporate collapse and taxpayers' bailouts. Corporate governance is really important. This report recommends best practices shared through principles established in each Member State and coupled with a 'comply or explain' regime. I agree, and I would also like to see it backed up with sanctions. 

As regards women's quotas, yes, I would like to see more women in senior positions, but my priority is to get the right people, the best people with the best skills, and in banking that means the balanced approach. Please remember that the Chief Financial Officer of Lehman's was a woman. A survey released today by the Bundesbank, a normally risk-moderate institution, suggests that in banks women are bigger risk-takers than men. Please be careful of jumping to decisions. Not all women are identical, and not all men are identical either.

Estimates of revenue and expenditure for 2013 - Section I - Parliament

I have listened carefully to the comments of Members this evening and, in the context of real cuts in real front-line services back in our Member States, in health, education and other areas, I cannot believe that Members think it is enough just to talk about freezing this budget in real terms.A freeze – a total freeze – would be a step in the right direction. I completely agree that Members must have the right to speak and listen in their own languages but I have also seen many Members fail to turn up for meetings where they have asked for interpretation, and that does not seem responsible. But more fundamentally we need to consider in the future how we run this Parliament and especially the costs of our monthly commute to Strasbourg because in order to have our citizens' satisfaction in our work we need to look again at the costs that they are bearing in the wider economy.

Deposit guarantee schemes

The purpose of the Deposit Guarantee Scheme is to put an end to the scenes of queues of frightened customers, desperately trying to get their cash out of a failing bank and to stop banks having to be bailed out by taxpayers. I agree with this. We all want to give people confidence that their money is safe with a bank.I have supported the rapporteur in many key areas, such as risk-based contributions and the emergency payout period. Banks must have proper computer systems for a rapid return of funds. Parliament is right to fight for this.

I recognise that there needs to be a level playing field across the single market, but I am concerned that this report will pull vital funds out of some of our economies. Many governments share these concerns, including Mario Monti's I understand.

The question is how to pay out funds. The proposal forces banks to take the equivalent of one and half cents in every euro – or one and a half pence in every pound – away from lending to businesses and into supposedly safe investments, with unlimited investments allowed in sovereign debt.

This fund, equal to 1.5% of deposits, may be enough in countries where there are many small banks, but it would not be enough in countries which have very concentrated markets and are dominated by huge players. That is why in the UK, for example, the government has gone further to protect depositors – but in a different way, with ring fencing, higher capital ratios and the right to pull in funds retrospectively.

Let me be clear. I completely support Member States who want to introduce pre-funded schemes if that works for consumer protection in their market, but for this directive to work throughout, it must take account of the realities and differences in our national markets. While we will continue to support the rapporteur where we can, I hope he will take the opportunity to listen to the concerns of a number of different countries and work towards a better proposal supporting both the depositors and those in need of lending commitments from banks.

Radio spectrum policy

Our mobile data traffic is expected to double, double and double again in the next three years; we love our smartphones, new devices, new apps. Coordinated spectrum release will boost access, allow seamless services across our borders, drive competition and innovation and deliver lower prices and higher quality.Spectrum is a finite resource often hoarded by public sectors. Countries should liberalise the existing 3G spectrum for the next generation and allow spectrum to be traded, giving access to new entrants. Releasing spectrum is vital for economic growth. In rural areas at 800 Mhz you can access the parts other bands cannot reach and 2.6 GHz will give deeper coverage in our cities.

It is important to coordinate activities and a spectrum inventory will help. But Member States must also be able to safeguard local services. To maintain our competitive position our countries must deliver our shared digital vision. Allocating spectrum is one step but customers need to be able to use it. For that we need long-term investment in our infrastructure and that is an even bigger challenge.

European semester for economic policy coordination

Last week Germany could not sell one third of its bond issue, yesterday the Italian Government paid nearly 8% interest and today two million people are striking in Britain even though the UK public pension black hole is the biggest in Europe. Right now this Parliament and every parliament should be looking at how to help growth, remove red tape and get businesses moving, but instead we have been in back rooms arguing about just when an economic dialogue would fit into Parliament's timetable and who should be on the guest list.Of course countries should consider how their economic policies affect others, but MEPs are now asking for a new treaty to give the European Parliament a vote on economic guidelines. This will not decrease the resentment of many of our citizens when they see decisions being taken in faraway places, and it will not help our businesses to grow. Members, we really must stop fiddling whilst Rome cannot borrow!

Implementation of Professional Qualifications Directive

I speak tonight as the daughter of two doctors, the sister of a doctor and the wife of another doctor. For generations, the UK has welcomed and valued doctors from many countries. However, the directive is not as successful as the Commissioner would like us to believe. Colleagues, please consider the tragic death of one of my constituents, Mr David Gray. He was killed by a doctor. The doctor did not recognise the drug he took from the standard medicine bag and administered a lethal dose.A tragedy like this undermines confidence in the very many thousands of excellent doctors from many different countries we have working in our country and across the EU. All doctors need to prove to the national regulator that they have not only academic qualifications but also have language and communications skills, as well as familiarity with local practices, and the EU directive must be amended to allow this.

Part of recognising professional qualifications is also recognising disqualifications. The 'alert' mechanism will help, but we must be able to share concerns as well as judgments. I welcome the report but would have liked to see it go further. Patient safety must come before politicians.

European Semester 2011: first lessons

The citizens that I represent are not necessarily concerned about what is happening in some faraway European Semester, but they are very concerned about what is happening in Europe and in the eurozone. Right now, they see that Greece cannot afford to repay its debt and that the crisis is just getting worse.From a UK perspective, there are many of my citizens who are fed up with bailing out our own banks, but who do think that it is time you restructured the banks across the continent. That is not easy and it is painful, but it does need to be sorted out and it needs to be sorted out now.

As for my own contribution on the European Semester, I hope that our Member States will live up to the expectations of the Budgetary Framework Directive because, fundamentally, our citizens need to know where their money is going, how it is being spent, and how forecasts are being put together by our governments. So I hope that one of the first actions of next year's Semester will be to ensure that our countries fulfil their obligations.

Modernisation of public procurement

Public procurement can be used to drive both innovation and efficiency, but often innovation is not encouraged when contracts are awarded. Public procurement is already too complicated and too bureaucratic, and mandatory innovation targets would not help. Innovation cannot be made to order. Instead, contracting processes should enable providers to develop clever solutions to challenges, rather than try to specify solutions in advance.On energy efficiency, for example, searching for the lowest price is not always the answer; nor is forcing authorities to purchase individual products, which individually appear efficient but collectively may not be. There does need to be a good dialogue and mutual understanding between the public sector and R&D sectors, but I am not convinced that the Commission's rigid partnerships are necessarily a good solution. Simplifying processes must be a priority and the EU should avoid over-regulating where this restricts flexibility, innovation or competition.