Solvency II

8.00 I go to the Parliament to swot up on the Solvency ll people I have to introduce in the Hearing later this morning and generally do a bit of preparation for that.

9.15 The Hearing on Solvency ll starts. This is in the round room with the interesting perspective views again, but as I am in the chair for one of the sessions I sit with the other chairs with my back to the window. The first two sessions are on industry and reinsurance. I find the presentation by Swiss Re on reinsurance particularly helpful. My session is on supervision and audit. I have as speakers Paul Sharma from the FSA who chairs the CEIOPS life and non-life issues, Jaroslaw Boguszynski a Director from the Polish Supervisory Commission and Philippe Foulquier from the EDHEC Institute. Sharma is fine, I have a good stab at the Polish name but he says ‘yes it is difficult to pronounce’ so obviously it was not quite good enough, and although the French pronunciation of Foulquier is ok he then proceeds so fast in French that I have to interrupt on behalf of the translators who just can not keep up. I am amazed how some people can get words out so quickly. The discussion gets lively, I take the third presentation as a question back to Sharma, then kick in a question myself about ‘on call’ capital. There is a big difference between the supervisors in how they see things and the panellists from the previous sessions also join in so I am able to keep bringing different people in and it all flows very well. We could have kept going for a lot longer I think if time had permitted. Others enjoyed it too and told me so afterwards, thanking me, but really it was just the way it fell rather than my skill.

13.00 Back to the office and emails about the proposed oral question on levies and completing the voting list for damages actions for ECON votes tomorrow.

15.00 Claire Bury, deputy head of cabinet for McCreevy comes to see me. We discuss the patent situation generally and exchange views on what we are picking up. She leaves at 16.00 and Thaddeus Burns arrives with Todd Dickinson (GE). Todd is their main patent counsel and used to be in charge of the US Patent Office, so is always interesting concerning what is happening in the US.

17.00 The Prep meeting of ALDE before tomorrow’s ECON votes. Most of the time is taken up by me explaining to Wolf how I have negotiated the compromises in the damages actions report and how I think what I have done should satisfy the spread of views within the Group. Karen who is actually our shadow is not there.

18.00 Back to the office and I work until 19.30 on various papers and preparing my presentation for tomorrow. I have both innovation strategy and Purchasing Price Parities to do. It also becomes apparent that it is proving to be as difficult as expected for the JURI votes on damages to be blended in to our voting schedule (we are the lead committee, but we have to vote on things from them that fall more in their competence). However the final voting list has still not turned up when I need to leave to get to the supermarket. On the way out I see Pervenche Beres, our ECON chair and she tells me that the vote is to be postponed, so the meeting will not start until 9.30 instead of 9.00. Back at the flat I read through the Industry Committee draft Report on innovation and find several really bad bits about patents and open standards. The draughtsman is asking for things that would be completely contrary to TRIPS . I will have to put amendments in to that committee as well as my ECON opinion.