John Baron MP votes against EU proposals for Banking Union

MP highlights concerns ahead of EU summit

 This week in the House of Commons, John Baron MP spoke in a debate about the proposed EU banking union, which will be established following a forthcoming EU summit. The banking union is intended as a measure to resolve the Euro crisis by centralising supervision of Eurozone banks.

 This banking union will be a major step towards political integration within the Eurozone. However, there is a danger Eurozone countries could permanently club together as a bloc when voting on any future EU banking and finance decisions and forever vote down the concerns of non-Eurozone countries. This is of critical importance to Britain because the strength its financial services and because the City of London is the world’s premier financial centre.

 The Government has stated it is seeking guarantees that British concerns will not be ignored – but these are not concrete guarantees. Therefore, ahead of the debate, an amendment was tabled calling upon the Government to ensure unanimity (not ‘qualified majority voting’) is required for any future EU banking and financial votes. This would allow Britain to veto any threats to the City’s operations. John put his name against the amendment and voted for it when the House divided. The vote was lost 273 to 33.

 In the debate, John said,

 “We accept we need to rebalance the economy, but we cannot ignore the importance of the City to our economy. We have been prepared to use the veto in the past, and it makes no sense for the Government’s proposals to proceed without cast-iron guarantees in place.”

 “There is little doubt that if we enter into negotiations without safeguards in place, we will stand a real risk of allowing others adversely to affect the City’s interest and our prosperity as well.”

 Afterwards, John said,

 “It is essential Britain retains regulatory control of this key sovereign asset. The Government must not sign away our present and future prosperity without clear safeguards – including a veto – in place to prevent a Eurozone caucus hamstringing the City.”

 Ends

Word Count: 351

Date: 8^th November 2012

 Notes to Editors:

• The EU banking proposals will allow the  European Central Bank to intervene to prevent banks from going bust, and to close those down which get into trouble and can not be saved. This will in turn lay the foundations for the burden of weak Eurozone banks to be borne by all Eurozone members, not just the national government of the bank in question.
• ‘Qualified majority voting’ is a type of vote employed by the EU in some policy areas. It does not require unanimity amongst members for the vote to be carried.
• The full text of the debate is online at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm121106/debtext/121106-0003.htm#121106102001375.