Un plan de long terme pour réguler la finance mondiale ([PSE]

Long Term plan for Euro-zone stability means getting tough on Hedge Fund Speculators on both sides of the Atlantic

PES President calls on EU Finance Ministers to ‘look speculators in the eye and say: your unprincipled buck stops here’

The 16 March meeting of EU Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) represents a ‘showdown’ between EU Finance Ministers and Hedge Fund Managers, according to Party of European Socialist (PES) President, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. The Finance Ministers are due to consider the Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM), which will have a direct impact on Hedge Funds. “The economic crisis has exposed the fallacies of the ‘light-touch’ regulatory approach, stated Mr. Rasmussen, “It is now clearly established that hedge funds activities have been one of the major cause of the financial crisis. The 16 March ECOFIN must mark a definitive step in the effort to limit their destructive impact on both sides of the Atlantic’.

Mr. Rasmussen made his comments as fellow Socialist leader, George Papandreou (Prime Minister of Greece) prepared to meet US President Barrack Obama to urge him to also take tough action on the Hedge Fund Speculators.  Mr. Papandreou called the speculators “unprincipled” for betting against Greece, and warned that draconian austerity measures in his country run the risk of being nullified by market attacks.

The Party of European Socialists has been at the forefront of efforts to stabilize the Euro-zone, having launched a ‘European Mechanism for Financial Stability’. The plan, the first agreed at European level <http://www.pes.org/en/news/pes-prime-ministers-meeting-agreed-find-long-term-solutions-within-eurozone> , is a more balanced approach than the European Monetary Fund (EMF) concept backed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäeuble. The PES have stated that the EMF plan is too focused on the monetary side, rather than looking at the best way we can promote growth and jobs, as well as combat financial speculators.

Mr. Rasmussen added that; “for the PES, our mechanism to ensure Euro-zone stability and curbing the actions of market speculators go hand in hand. On the 16 March EU Finance Ministers must look speculators in the eye and say: your unprincipled buck stops here”.

Background : There have been a number of Press reports dealing with the activity of Hedge Fund Managers before and during the Greek Crisis.

Goldman Sachs, recently exposed as one of the advisers to the previous, conservative Greek Government, on how best to present, some would say hide, its debt, led a delegation of Hedge Fund Managers to Greece, for a ‘fact-finding tour’ which included high-level government meetings. Based on information gleaned on this tour, the same actors have been involved in heavy trading against Greece. The PES <http://www.pes.org/>  brings together 33 socialist, social democratic, labour and progressive parties in the European Union and Norway, a parliamentary group in the European Parliament (184 MEPs) and in the Committee of the Regions (247 members) – plus observer and associate parties and organizations from all over Europe. ECOSY <http://www.ecosy.org/>  and PES Women <http://www.pes.org/en/about-pes/how-does-pes-work/pes-women> are respectively the Youth and the Women’s organizations of the PES. PES Communications