Debate on Van den Burg, Barometers

9.00 Get to the Parliament. We get a panic email from our administrator that her submissions from yesterday missed the deadline. We point out that they could not, they were a day early!! Seems both Delphine and the tabling office now suffering fatigue! We then have an email from Margarita saying she does not agree with what was agreed yesterday. It is pointed out she was outvoted (and would have been even if she had been there).

10.30 I go down to plenary for the debate on the van den Burg report. I have decided to concentrate on three points: hedge funds/private equity, where I say discussion and analysis fine but do not put pre-emptive conclusions in the same sentence just to be fashionable, the investment bank point and not to try and asses the next steps in supervising before we have finished the current changes. It seems to fit in (or challenge) what other say. Radwan speaks after me and in reply to me says he is not be pre-emptive on hedge funds (or words to that effect). I think it is good to get a dynamic exchange within such short speeches! All these speeches are available on the Parliament websites, so no need for more here! I talk to Ieke van den Burg afterwards about investment banks and say I would accept a compromise that pointed out there were differing degrees of concentration.

12.00 Votes. Diana is in the chair for her first session of votes. She is very clear and it is possible to hear everything she says without headphones. Why is it only the Brits that speak up so clearly! We get to the vote on whether mercury should be banned in antique barometers. I turn to the page and there is an extraordinary list of which delegations are voting how, with subdivisions within that, so it runs over two pages. Several colleagues look around wondering who to side with!. Basically we are all split between being pragmatic, being rules is rules and possibly thinking it is a member state thing. I vote for antique barometers.

13.15 Back to the office. There are continuing email exchanges about our voting on the van den Burg report.

16.00 We have a committee meeting with Charlie McCreevy about Solvency ll, which is launched today. I arrive on time, as does Karin and McCreevy and entourage, but everyone else is late!

17.30 Back in the office and more paperwork. I plot my one minute on TRIPS. News that I may have got a split vote request in on investments banks has been discovered by Deutche Bank. Their lobbyist comes to check then happily goes away to talk to MEPs in the EPP.

18.30 Reception and speeches on launch of Solvency ll. There are about five speakers lined up, starting with Charlie McCreevy, who usefully spots that if he reads his speech (9 pages) everyone else will do the same and so we will be there until midnight. So he sets the trend for improvisation, which works well. Just as the speeches end I get text from Carol to sprint over to Group for votes.

20.00 Votes in Group on postal services and employ with lost of proxies. Win some, lose some. So this means we will have work to do tomorrow on three voting lists. Leave Parliament at 9pm