Lars Nyberg
As well as set-piece debates with guest speakers, the plenary session also saw the debate and adoption of a number of significant opinions. One of these was an ‘initiative’ opinion drafted by a Swedish Employees’ Group member, Lars Nyberg, on the Larosière Group’s recommendations (on the future of European regulation and supervision of financial markets). The Committee’s opinion endorses Larosière’s main recommendations but widens the analysis from a relatively technical angle to include all of the economy and makes additional recommendations in that context. For example, the Committee argues that membership of the three spearate authorities for banks, investment funds and securities markets should not be limited to bankers but should include representatives from broader civil society, from consumers (customers) through to trades unions. It wants new financial products to be assessed by a monetary authority before they are marketed. It argues that auditors should play a more important role; in particular, effective auditing could have curtailed the spread of risky instruments. Perhaps most controversially, the Committee’s opinion opts for a Tobin-type tax on financial transactions, with proceeds going to development aid.
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