Socialist MEPs attack McCreevy over free market policies

THE European Parliament’s second-largest group likened internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy to a lobbyist for the finance industry and demanded he be moved.

The Socialist group sent a letter to commission president Jose Manuel Barroso saying they had lost trust and confidence in the former Irish finance minister and accused him of not producing regulation covering all financial players.

This, they said, was contrary to the will of the European Parliament and also ignored assurances to the MEPs from Mr Barroso and the current EU president, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and to the conclusions of the G20 summit in Washington last month.

“He now pleads with industry to help him avoid regulation, using inflammatory and insulting language about the parliament or perhaps member state governments,” it added.

Mr McCreevy has proposed carrying out consultations on hedge funds but the letter said that he did so two years ago when he consulted only industry. “We don’t need new consultations, we need concrete proposals,” the letter said.

Mr McCreevy’s spokesman, Oliver Drewes, said consultation on hedge funds would begin this week. This would lead to a conference in February after which the commission would decide how best to proceeds. “Any regulatory initiative starts in this way”, he added

Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan said the arguments put forward by the Socialists “did not stand up to close scrutiny or any objective analysis”.