mr president we seem to be a succession of old hands rising to speak but would that i were not making my last speech in the european parliament in the worst economic situation of my lifetime and that is a lifetime that started in the blighted nineteen thirties and would that i were not also having to speak in a debate on a piece of european legislation which is not i am afraid wholly satisfactory the capital requirements directive
i and my group will support the compromise reached by rapporteur karas with great skill and patience under heavy time pressure and in the current feverish economic circumstances
but i hope my colleagues who return here after the election will revert to the full codecision process which can really fully test and refine our legislation
i fear that much of this over-hasty legislation will reveal unintended and untoward consequences
for example i fear that the rules on large exposures extolled by commissioner mccreevy and prompted by genuine concerns about counterparty risk will make it that much more difficult to reactivate the interbank money market to its full and desirable extent
i fear that the new retention rule also extolled by commissioner mccreevy will in fact impede the revival of securitisation which is an essential and predominantly beneficial mechanism for funding mortgages car loans and consumer spending
all the government-induced stimuli which one might contemplate cannot compensate for a moribund securitisation market
so i just hope that when the time comes to review this directive the necessary impact assessments will have been made that wise counsels will have been consulted that the global context will have been properly and fully considered and that fully appropriate rules are ultimately implemented
