Beyond Economic Good Sense

Perverse Berès is a French socialist, (and a professional politicain having never had a job outside politics as far as her CV goes) so I suppose we shouldn't be asking too much of her. However she sits on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European parliament and has a habit of coming up with stuff. Which is doing to the full extent of her capacities on Monday when she launches this on the world. Her own initiative report is nothing if not ambitious. The report itself is for the special Committee set up by the Parliament in response to the financial crisis and is a perfect example of the old refrain in Brussels, that if their is a question the answer is always 'More Europe'. So here is the considered opinion of the new Committee,

Report on the Financial, economic and social crisis: recommendations concerning the measures and initiatives to be taken

And what marvels of economic perspicacity shall we find therein? (My italics)

Taxation
41. Stresses that both EMU and the internal market require a stronger shift towards tax harmonisation; supports the Commission in its efforts to tackle harmful tax competition,

or this

Migration
37. Emphasises that both the major revolutions in our neighbourhood regions and demographic developments within the EU call for a common migration policy; stresses that greater mobility of labour must be encouraged by granting equal employment and social conditions and rights for all workers, together with the possibility of transferring social security and pension benefits;

or maybe this,

III.The case for a new monetary system
24. Recognises the global concern about the functioning of the international monetary system and calls for a major leap forward to be taken as a matter of urgency; requests, therefore, the setting up of a new international monetary system (IMS) aimed at systematic and comprehensive macroeconomic cooperation with sustainable and balanced global growth;...
26. Calls, furthermore, for thought to be given - in the long term – to the possibility of creating a global reserve currency based on the development and transformation of (Special Drawing Rights) SDRs and of the IMF;

Or even this,

4. Underlines the fact that that the sovereign debt crisis revealed the risks of intra-European imbalances; stresses the need for the EU to react as one, to develop a common European fiscal policy with a sufficient EU budget and to put in place adequate provisions for crisis
management and economic and fiscal convergence;

And to cap it all this,

6. Calls for a comprehensive, socially inclusive and cohesive reform package addressing the fundamental underlying causes of the public debt crisis, to include the establishment of a European Treasury to strengthen the economic pillar of EMU;

I know that this is an own initiative report, but so was the initial report on the creation of three new EU regulatory bodies for the finacial markets, so was the Hedge Fund Directive. The Conservative lead coalition did not stop them and now they sit over the City, bearing down upon it and driving business away from the UK. Remember too that the EPP, the PSE, the ALDE the Green s and the Communists are all on record supporting this (see link above). And then just have a look at this little report in the Telegraph today,

But Flint very deliberately at the end of his speech highlighted the growth expected in the Far East and how well positioned HSBC is there in terms of funding and ability to grow. Mike Geoghegan, when HSBC chief executive, relocated his job there. If it pays for shareholders, then moving the legal and regulatory base abroad will occur first. As the bank’s centre of gravity shifts, other operations will follow.

London will never be emptied of bankers but there’ll simply be less of the economically most important ones. And that goes for customers too, as the old adage of “follow the money” once again rings true.

So now is the time to stop all this, not two years hence when everything is done and dusted, and the UK's freedom of movement and its single biggest revenue earner is a thing of the past.