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Merkel and Sarkozy push financial market reforms

France and Germany on Wednesday called for a European ban on certain high-risk financial market instruments such as naked short selling in a joint appeal that came amid tensions over the eurozone debt crises.

Published: 9 June 2010 12:58 CEST

Merkel and Sarkozy push financial market reforms

Photo: DPA

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote jointly to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and urged quick action to regulate certain transactions due to “turbulence” on the markets.

“The commission’s work should include a possible ban at European level on naked short selling of all or certain shares and bonds and of certain credit default swaps on sovereign securities,” they wrote in the letter.

Credit default swaps are instruments offering insurance against the risk that a government might be unable to honour payments due on debt it has issued

to investors to cover its overspending.

“Naked” short selling is a particularly aggressive technique of selling assets for a future date without having any immediate access to it, even through borrowing. Traders seek to profit from a future drop in prices.

The biggest market for such financial products in Europe is in London where the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat government is already facing regulatory moves from EU authorities considered unwelcome for British financial centres.

A sudden, unilateral decision by Germany to ban some forms of “naked” short selling in government debt caused consternation in European government debt markets and helped make big deficits and debt in the eurozone a hot issue.

“Strong measures have already come into force,” Merkel and Sarkozy wrote in the letter dated Tuesday but released on Wednesday.

“Severe turbulence on the financial markets in recent months has however raised serious concerns among member states of the European Union and all our citizens,” they added.

“We believe there is an urgent need for the (European) Commission to speed up its work concerning the strengthened framework of the market” governing transactions such as the credit default swaps and short selling.

They called on the commission to present a comprehensive action plan before a meeting of economic and finance ministers of the 27 EU countries on July 9.

Sarkozy and Merkel are to hold talks on Monday in Berlin ahead of a European Union summit later that week that will be dominated by worries over the eurozone’s debt crises.

There have been mounting disagreements between the two leaders over economic policy, including frequent clashes over multi-billion-euro bailout packages for Greece and then the wider eurozone.

Paris had blamed Berlin for dragging its feet over a near trillion-dollar plan drawn up to prevent Greece’s fiscal woes from spreading to other vulnerable countries, saying that it pushed up the price of the package.

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OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

With all the talk about the EU long-term residency permit and the proposed improvements there is no mention that UK citizens who are Withdrawal Agreement “beneficiaries” are currently being left out in the cold.

The European Commission has stated that we can hold multiple statuses including the EU long-term permit (Under a little-known EU law, third-country nationals can in theory acquire EU-wide long-term resident status if they have lived ‘legally’ in an EU country for at least five years) but in reality it is just not happening.

This effectively leaves Brits locked into their host countries while other third country nationals can enjoy some mobility rights. As yet, in Italy, it is literally a question of the computer saying no if someone tries to apply.

The lack of access to the EU long-term permit to pre-Brexit Brits is an EU-wide issue and has been flagged up to the European Commission but progress is very slow.

READ ALSO: EU government settle on rules for how non-EU citizens could move around Europe

My guess is that few UK nationals who already have permanent residency status under the Withdrawal Agreement are even aware of the extra mobility rights they could have with the EU long-term residency permit – or do not even realise they are two different things.

Perhaps there won’t be very large numbers clamouring for it but it is nothing short of discrimination not to make it accessible to British people who’ve built their lives in the EU.

They may have lost their status as EU citizens but nothing has changed concerning the contributions they make, both economically and socially.

An example of how Withdrawal Agreement Brits in Italy are losing out

My son, who has lived almost his whole life here, wanted to study in the Netherlands to improve his employment prospects.

Dutch universities grant home fees rather than international fees to holders of an EU long-term permit. The difference in fees for a Master’s, for example, is an eye-watering €18,000. He went through the application process, collecting the requisite documents, making the payments and waited many months for an appointment at the “questura”, (local immigration office).

On the day, it took some persuading before they agreed he should be able to apply but then the whole thing was stymied because the national computer system would not accept a UK national. I am in no doubt, incidentally, that had he been successful he would have had to hand in his WA “carta di soggiorno”.

This was back in February 2022 and nothing has budged since then. In the meantime, it is a question of pay up or give up for any students in the same boat as my son. There is, in fact, a very high take up of the EU long-term permit in Italy so my son’s non-EU contemporaries do not face this barrier.

Long-term permit: The EU’s plan to make freedom of movement easier for non- EU nationals

Completing his studies was stalled by a year until finally his Italian citizenship came through after waiting over 5 years. I also meet working adults in Italy with the EU long-term permit who use it for work purposes, such as in Belgium and Germany, and for family reunification.

Withdrawal agreement card should double up as EU long-term residency permit

A statement that Withdrawal Agreement beneficiaries should be able to hold multiple statuses is not that easy to find. You have to scroll quite far down the page on the European Commission’s website to find a link to an explanatory document. It has been languishing there since March 2022 but so far not proved very useful.

It has been pointed out to the Commission that the document needs to be multilingual not just in English and “branded” as an official communication from the Commission so it can be used as a stand-alone. But having an official document you can wave at the immigration authorities is going to get you nowhere if Member State governments haven’t acknowledged that WA beneficiaries can hold multiple statuses and issue clear guidance and make sure systems are modified accordingly.

I can appreciate this is no mean feat in countries where they do not usually allow multiple statuses or, even if they do, issue more than one residency card. Of course, other statuses we should be able to hold are not confined to EU long-term residency, they should include the EU Blue Card, dual nationality, family member of an EU citizen…

Personally, I do think people should be up in arms about this. The UK and EU negotiated an agreement which not only removed our freedom of movement as EU citizens, it also failed to automatically give us equal mobility rights to other third country nationals. We are now neither one thing nor the other.

It would seem the only favour the Withdrawal Agreement did us was we didn’t have to go out and come back in again! Brits who follow us, fortunate enough to get a visa, may well pip us at the post being able to apply for EU long-term residency as clearly defined non-EU citizens.

I have been bringing this issue to the attention of the embassy in Rome, FCDO and the European Commission for three years now. I hope we will see some movement soon.

Finally, there should be no dragging of heels assuming we will all take citizenship of our host countries. Actually, we shouldn’t have to, my son was fortunate, even though it took a long time. Others may not meet the requirements or wish to give up their UK citizenship in countries which do not permit dual nationality.

Bureaucratic challenges may seem almost insurmountable but why not simply allow our Withdrawal Agreement permanent card to double up as the EU long-term residency permit.

Clarissa Killwick,

Since 2016, Clarissa has been a citizens’ rights campaigner and advocate with the pan-European group, Brexpats – Hear Our Voice.
She is co-founder and co-admin of the FB group in Italy, Beyond Brexit – UK citizens in Italy.

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