Sven Giegold

European Parliament calls for tough examination of the Wirecard scandal and the failure of German supervisor BaFin

The Legal Affairs Committee and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament have sent a joint letter to the EU Commission on Wirecard and European auditing rules. The letter was prepared by the coordinators of both committees. The EU-Commission is asked to closely examine the events surrounding the Wirecard bankruptcy, assess the role of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and European supervisors and draw conclusions with regard to weaknesses in the European legal framework.

MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group commented:

“The serious conflicts of interest of the major audit firms must be stopped. EU rules on auditing must be changed so that auditors are no longer selected and paid directly by the audited company. Audit firms and advisory business must be completely separated. The EU Audit Directive must be revised quickly and fundamentally”.

“It is embarrassing but necessary that the German financial supervisor BaFin is at the centre of our critical questions. The current position of BaFin is damaging to Germany as a financial centre. Legal reservations and inconsistent enforcement of important rules are bad advice for financial supervision.”

Link to the letter from the two committees to the EU Commission: https://sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/JURIECON-to-DombrovskisVestager-Wirecard.pdf

Link to the call by liberal ECON coordinator Luis Garicano and myself for the reform of auditing: https://sven-giegold.de/liberale-und-gruene-fordern-wp-reform/

Links to my prize competition “financial scandals that BaFin failed to detect” (German):

https://sven-giegold.de/grosses-bafin-gewinnspiel/

https://sven-giegold.de/unaufgedeckte-finanzskandale/

P.S.: INVITATION to the webinar: European chemical industry: Transformation for people and planet on Tuesday 1 September 10am – 12:30pm. Together with my colleague Jutta Paulus, we will discuss our priorities for a sustainable chemicals policy with EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, representatives from BASF, civil society and other guests. Join us and register right here: Registration

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