MS Leader: The dark shadow of Europe
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At Mortgage Strategy’s Mortgage Masters conference last week, Europe and the dire economic backdrop permeated most of the discussions on the market.
Sharon Bowles, Liberal Democrat MEP and chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, gave a balanced speech at the end of the first day on the current state of mortgage directive. But when she moved on to the future of the European Union and the euro, her message was gloomy.
She was pessimistic about the future of the euro and said that in her opinion it was game over. A day later, Bowles sent out a press release stating that we potentially face the demise of the euro by Christmas and if that happens it will wreck our economy.
It’s hardly surprising then, as she says in this week’s 60 Seconds With interview, that with so much at stake in the EU, the mortgage directive seems like a bit of a sideshow - or in her words, “feels like moving deck chairs on the Titanic”.
But assuming that both the eurozone and EU do survive, it is still vital we end up with a directive that is a workable document.
The last six months have amply demonstrated the negative aspects of the EU - disdain for democracy when the chips are down and a collective failure to look at the small print when the euro was first set up.
Let’s hope it doesn’t add to this list a disastrous mortgage directive that cripples all the countries that have to adhere to it. The Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Financial Services Authority seem to be focussed on ironing out areas that clash with the UK mortgage market, but it seems that Europe, from both a regulatory and economic perspective, continues to cast a dark shadow.
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