Commission backs McCreevy after criticism by MEPs

The European Commission has backed internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy after three senior MEPs said they had no confidence in him as a commissioner and accused him of blocking demands for tighter regulations governing hedge funds and private equities.

A commission spokesman said Mr McCreevy would soon publish details of a consultative process to develop an appropriate regulatory initiative for the European finance sector and that this was in line with commission procedure.

In a joint letter to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, three MEPs claimed Mr McCreevy was deliberately avoiding European Parliament demands for increased financial regulation.

They said Mr McCreevy’s actions “demonstrated a total absence of respect for the European Parliament, and appear to be more appropriate for a paid lobbyist of the finance industry than a European Commissioner”.

The letter was written by president of the Socialist group in the European Parliament Martin Schultz, chairwoman of the parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee Pervenche Beres and president of the party of European socialists and former Danish prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

In September, the European Parliament overwhelmingly backed a legislative report on financial market reform which called for more regulation of the sector.

The three MEPs say Mr McCreevy is deliberately establishing “time-wasting” consultative procedures to avoid implementing “the will of the Parliament”.

Their strongly-worded letter also claims that Mr McCreevy was pleading with finance industry to help him avoid regulation, “using inflammatory and insulting language about the Parliament”.

They cite a recent speech by the former minister for finance to the British Venture Capitalist Association in which he referred to “trigger-happy regulators” and “indiscriminate” regulation.

“We can only assume that he is referring to the Parliament or member state Governments, as no others have the influence on EU regulation,” the letter says.

The three concluded their letter by saying they had “lost trust and confidence in Commissioner McCreevy”.

Dublin Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa today called on Mr Barroso to remove Mr McCreevy from his post.

Mr De Rossa said: “Commissioner McCreevy has been an abysmal failure in his post as the person responsible for ensuring the proper regulation of financial institutions in Europe.”

“Commissioner Barroso has a duty to shift him to a position where he can do no more harm,” he said.