THE EUROPEAN Commission has defended internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy after three prominent MEPs accused him of bypassing demands for stricter regulations governing hedge funds and private equities.
In a strongly worded letter to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, the MEPs said they had lost all confidence in Mr McCreevy as commissioner, claiming he was deliberately ignoring European Parliament calls for increased financial regulation.
They said that the actions of Mr McCreevy "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 signed by three Socialist MEPs - Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the president of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Socialist group leader Martin Schulz, and Pervenche Berès, chair of the parliament's committee on economic and monetary affairs.
A spokeswoman for Mr Barroso said yesterday that the president had full confidence in Mr McCreevy, adding that the commission had a single policy in relation to the regulation of hedge funds.
A spokesman for Mr McCreevy said the commission would publish a consultation document on the regulation of hedge funds today.
He said it was ridiculous for anyone to claim that the commission should follow a different procedure on the hedge funds issue.
"This is the better regulation process. This is the way we do it," said the spokesman, who noted that the MEPs who signed the letter had not attended a European Parliament committee meeting during which Mr McCreevy had outlined his plans on hedge funds.
"Those people weren't present. They obviously didn't think it was important enough," the spokesman added.
In September, the European Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed a legislative report on financial market reform, authored by Mr Rasmussen, which called for tighter regulation of the sector in the wake of the global economic crisis.
The three MEPs claimed Mr McCreevy was deliberately employing "time-wasting" consultative procedures to avoid implementing "the will of the parliament".
Their letter accuses the former Irish minister for finance of using "inflammatory and insulting language" in a recent address to the British Venture Capitalist Association.
In the address Mr McCreevy 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 states.
Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan, who sits on the parliament's economic committee, said the Socialist MEPs displayed "an incredible lack of awareness of the real issues" in relation to the current financial crisis.
"Let's get on with dealing with the real issues and not waste time with diversionary publicity-seeking tactics," Mr Ryan added.
But Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa said he agreed with the sentiments contained in the letter and called on Mr Barroso to remove Mr McCreevy from his post.
"Commissioner McCreevy has been an abysmal failure in his post as the person responsible for ensuring the proper regulation of financial institutions in Europe," he said.
"Mr Barroso has a duty to shift him to a position where he can do no more harm."