This story on the BBC caught my eye this week, entitled "EU leaders call for transparency".
It related to the gathering in London of the top 5 EU leaders - Jose Barroso, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Romano Prodi, hosted by Gordon Brown. Coming at the same time as the House of Commons began its debates on the Lisbon EU Treaty, I suddenly imagined that our leaders had done a volte face on the Constitution/Treaty!
Alas, it wasn't a story about how the EU runs itself at all - in fact, EU leaders were calling for greater transparency in the banking system!
In fact, any banker reading their exhortations would probably guffaw at the crass hyprocrisy of it all. Brown talked about wanting "prompt and full disclosure." Merkel complained about the "complexity" of the financial sector. Sarkozy attacked a "lack of transparency".
All five have been crucial players in putting before us the new Lisbon treaty, which is more than 95% the same as the Constitution, which they say it isn't. Now compare what they said about the banking world this week with what they have said in recent months about the process behind the new Treaty.
Merkel said: "The consolidated approach of part one of the constitutional treaty is preserved with the necessary presentational changes." She proposed "to use different terminology without changing the substance."
Prodi said: "as long as we have more or less a European Prime Minister and a European Foreign Minister, then we can give them any title."
Brown said, whilst announcing the timetable for the UK signing the new Treaty: "We now need to focus on the real issues that matter to the people in the Member States - competitiveness, jobs, the environment, security."
Barroso said: "We will ratify a treaty that is not the constitutional treaty. It will be drawing from the latter, but it will be different."
Sarkozy said "urgent priorities for institutional reform could be covered in a mini-treaty that would modify the treaties of Nice and Amsterdam...But in the longer term, root-and-branch reforms remain essential."
From my experience in banking, no world is perfect, but with instant pricing, huge volumes of information, tight disclosure rules and so on, EU leaders should be learning from it, not lecturing it.
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