On today's vote by the European Parliament on the control of hedge-funds and private equity, Sahra Wagenknecht, MEP for the LEFT and member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Aaffairs of the European Parliament, declares:

The European Parliament did not use today's vote on the Rasmussen report to demand clear and unequivocal regulations for the control of hedge-funds and private equity. Even the current disaster of the international financial system was apparently not sufficient to get the majority of the parliament to pass a clearer statement.

Instead the Parliament followed the line predetermined by the economic committee: there conservatives, social democrats and liberals had closed their ranks shortly before the vote and had unitedly presented a new text draft in which the original formulations had been smoothed out and watered down as much as possible. In accordance with this line, in the plenary session, all amendments were rejected that would have incorporated more far-reaching criticism. Therefore, the resolution of the parliament remains weak and ineffective.

With today's decision, the European Parliament has missed the opportunity to take position clearly and unequivocally on this enormously important question and to defend the interests of the majority of the population by calling for an effective control of the financial markets. Instead the Parliament reveals itself again as an institution not up to more than soft-rinsed criticism so as to not act against the interests of financial capital and large companies.

Sahra Wagenknecht, MEP
Brussels, 23 September 2008