"Vindictive" targeting ignores EU's core economic failures
Posted, January 16, 2012 @ 19:00
A renewed attack by the EU on credit ratings agencies smacks of vindictiveness, Conservative MEP Ashley Fox said today.
The EU Commission this morning attempted to belittle the agencies (CRAs) by effectively saying the EU knew better than them.
Spokesman Olivier Bailly told reporters: "We have more information than the ratings agencies and we think there are elements missing in their analysis."
But he suggested that the EU could not share the information with global economic decision-makers because it would take too much time. The intervention came seven hours before Standard and Poor's took the further dramatic step of downgrading the EU's bail-out mechanism mthe European Financial Stability Fund.
In an apparent attempt to assert its authority, the Commission also republished plans to crack down on the agencies through more-severe regulation.
The hostile stance followed Friday afternoon's downgrading by American CRA Standard and Poor's of France and eight other EU economies.
Mr Fox, MEP for South West England, has led Conservative opposition in the European Parliament to heavy-handed regulation of the CRAs. He said: "However carefully Commissioners may claim to have thought their message out, the timing makes it look like nothing more than a vindictive knee-jerk reaction to Friday's high-profile downgrades.
"Once again they mistake an unwelcome message for an untrustworthy one. Once again they confuse cause and effect. Once again they ignore the underlying crisis and bring their force to bear on a side-issue.
"They see an unhelpful message and conclude it must be based on false data or unreliable calculation.
"But as I keep telling them - you don't get better weather by turning down the forecast."