Economsiche en sociale partners willen nieuwe ethische regels en beter toezicht voor bankwezen (en)

To rebuild the economy, economic and social actors call for a new set of ethics for banks and better European supervision

On 22 and 23 January, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a conference entitled "Rien ne va plus? Ways to rebuild the European Social Market Economy", which focused on the financial situation and the dangers threatening European economies. This conferencekicked off a cycle of debates with all civil society representatives and stakeholders affected by the crisis(European institutions, the financial sector, economists and social partners) in order to identify concrete measures to escape from the crisis.

During his introduction, EESC president Mario Sepi, said that the time of no limits and no supervision for the financial markets was over: " Adam Smith's invisible hand was utopian wishful thinking!". In his view, our task now is to define an efficient, regulated and transparent system based on the European social model. " Enough ideology: it's time to be practical " and establish a new set of ethics for the banking sector.

The first group of speakers highlighted the imperative need to boost mid and long term investments to get the European and international economy back on its feet. However, John Monks, secretary-general of the European Trade Union Confederation, is concerned that "European banks have stopped lending just when purchasing power must be supported and investment in a new social deal is essential".

Philippe De Buck , director-general of Businesseurope, stressed the need to extend Europe's role in financial supervision and Professor Umberto Triulzi, of the University of Rome, added that "short-term speculative investment has endangered the real economy by developing twenty times faster than normal ".

Several speakers said that the single currency and the internal market were successfully dampening the effects of the crisis and called on the Member States to react as one to the crisis, with a common strategy and plan. Pervenche Berès i, chair of the European Parliament's ECON committee, deplored the current lack of European coordination and called for political decisions on investment: "how can we support activity and whom should we support?". Andrea Benassi, representing European SMEs (UEAPME), demanded action for SMEs as well as major industries: "a large slice of the European economy is made up of SMEs which have held out relatively well so far but are now entering a period of turbulence".

All the speakers agreed that demand and employment needed to be supported, funds channelled towards research and training and new rules defined for the financial markets, calling on Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, member of the European Central Bank's executive board, to take note of these goals. During day two, Daniel Gros, Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, said that " the absence of closer supervision at European level is also the result of an error in the construction of European monetary union." Gilbert Rebeyrole, president of the national federation of mutual guarantee crafts companies, argued for a "revision of the legislative framework for State aid" as one way of escaping from the crisis.

Participants concluded by praising the fundamental role of the EESC as a forum for debate between civil society representatives and the social partners. They agreed on two major points, emphasised by EESC president Mario Sepi in his conclusions: banks must pass on the drop in interest rates to businesses and consumers, and strong coordination and supervision, even legislation, is needed at EU level to meet the expectations of economic and social partners, families, consumers and all those hit by the crisis.